INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 


BY 


BISHOP  J.  M.  THOBURN, 

THIRTY-THREE  YEARS  A  MISSIONARY  IN   INDIA, 


CINCINNATI:  CRANSTON  &  CURTS. 

NEW  YORK:  HUNT  &  EATON. 

1893. 


Copyright 

By  CRANSTON  &  CURTS, 
1892. 


PREFACE. 


IN  May,  1888,  the  writer  of  the  following  pages  was  elected 
to  the  superintendency  of  the  missions  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  India  and  Malaysia.  He  had  spent 
most  of  his  life  in  India,  and  had  enjoyed  better  opportuni- 
ties for  seeing  all  parts  of  the  empire  than  fall  to  the  lot  of 
most  missionaries,  and  yet  a  very  brief  experience  in  his 
new  sphere  of  duty  impressed  him  with  a  sense  of  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  field  and  of  its  splendid  opportunities  for  suc- 
cessful missionary  work,  which  seemed  to  come  upon  him 
with  all  the  force  of  an  unexpected  discovery.  In  making 
frequent  tours  he  found  but  few  workers  who  seemed  to 
take  broad  views  of  the  situation,  or  were  alive  to  the 
emergency  of  the  hour.  With  rare  exceptions,  Christians 
throughout  India  seemed  to  be  unaware  of  the  value  of  their 
magnificent  heritage.  They  were  not  indifferent,  but  very 
many  of  them  seemed  despondent,  and  only  here  and  there 
did  the  hope  seem  to  be  cherished  that  God  was  preparing 
the  way  in  India  for  the  greatest  triumphs  which  had  ever 
crowned  the  efforts  of  his  Son  to  save  the  human  race. 
Missionaries,  and  Christian  workers  generally,  did  not  seem 
to  understand  the  situation.  They  did  not,  in  short,  seem  to 
know  India.  They  saw  missionary  work  only  in  glimpses, 
and  seldom  saw  or  heard  of  any  marked  token  of  victory. 
Returning  to  America  for  a  few  months  in  1890,  the  writer 
was  at  once  struck  with  the  inability  of  even  intelligent 

persons  to  understand  him  when  he  spoke  of  the  vast  extent 

3 


515238 

UBSET. 


4  PREFACE. 

of  his  field.  "  We  do  not  get  a  correct  view,"  said  one 
friend,  "  when  you  speak  of  India  and  Malaysia.  "We  see  it 
all  in  one  perspective,  and  only  in  barest  outlines  at  that." 
India  was  universally  spoken  of  as  an  Asiatic  country,  like 
Corea  or  Japan,  but  without  any  appreciation  of  the  fact 
that  it  was  a  vast  group  of  countries,  and  contained  within 
its  borders  almost  one-fifth  of  the  human  race. 

This  surprising  want  of  information  would  matter  less  if 
the  Christians  of  America  stood  in  no  particular  relation  to 
the  people  of  India;  but  inasmuch  as  all  the  great  Protestant 
Churches  have  planted  missions  in  India,  it  is  of  the  highest 
importance  that  the  character  of  the  empire  and  its  people 
be  intelligently  understood.  Not  a  little  valuable  labor,  as 
well  as  money,  has  already  been  lost  by  working  blindly ;  but 
this  need  not  be  repeated.  If  missionary  work  is  worth  do- 
ing at  all,  it  is  worth  doing  well.  Every  Christian  who 
supports  the  work  should  do  so  intelligently.  Every  pastor 
should  be  able  to  tell  his  people  about  the  great  mission- 
fields  of  the  Church  ;  while  it  goes  without  saying  that  every 
one  on  whom  official  responsibility  rests  should  acquaint 
himself  with  his  duties.  Mr.  Froude  related  some  years  ago 
an  authentic  story  of  Lord  Palmerston,  who  was  trying  to 
form  a  new  ministry.  All  had  been  arranged  except  the 
Secretaryship  for  the  Colonies,  for  which  post  no  suitable 
man  could  be  found.  At  last  Lord  Palmerston  said,  half  in 
earnest  and  half  in  jest :  "  I  think  I  shall  have  to  take  that 
myself;"  and,  turning  to  a  secretary,  added :  "  Come  over 
in  a  day  or  two,  and  bring  with  you  a  good  map  of  the 
world,  and  show  me  where  the  Colonies  are."  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  not  a  few  who  strive  for  responsible  posts  in 
Boards,  General  Committees,  and  Secretariats,  have  never 


PREFACE.  5 

taken  one  lesson  on  a  missionary  map.  "  The  times  of  this 
ignorance  "  the  Church  has  too  long  winked  at,  and  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that  a  better  day  is  at  hand. 

During  the  visit  to  America  mentioned  above,  the  idea 
was  first  suggested  of  writing  a  book  on  India  and  Malaysia 
large  enough  to  give  the  most  needful  information  on  so  vast 
a  region,  and  yet  concise  enough  to  satisfy  the  wants  of  the 
great  mass  of  readers  who  have  not  time  to  study  all  manner 
of  details.  Accepting  the  advice  of  many  trusted  friends,  the 
task  has  been  undertaken  in  the  hope  of  bringing  India 
nearer  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  American  Christians.  No 
attempt  has  been  made  to  treat  any  one  subject  exhaustively, 
but  rather  to  give  a  series  of  sketches  of  the  country,  people, 
resources,  religions,  and  other  institutions,  and  especially  of 
the  more  practical  aspects  of  the  great  missionary  enterprise 
as  illustrated  in  India  and  Malaysia  at  the  present  day.  It 
is  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that  the  book  has  been  written 
by  a  missionary  from  a  missionary  stand-point,  and  for  those 
interested  in  missions.  It  is  also  written  in  the  interest  of 
the  Society  which  the  writer  represents,  though  not  by  any 
means  confined  to  the  missions  of  that  Society.  The  great 
work  of  India's  redemption  is  one  that  transcends  all  de- 
nominational interests  and  all  ecclesiastical  boundary-lines. 
The  Church  which  the  writer  represents  has  in  this  field  en- 
tered upon  the  most  gigantic  enterprise  which  has  ever  been 
attempted  in  Methodist  history,  and  this  book  is  sent  forth  in 
the  hope  of  aiding  to  set  before  that  Church  the  true  character 
of  the  stupendous  enterprise  to  which  she  stands  committed 
before  the  world. 

Many  works  on  India  have  been  published  during  the 
past  quarter-century,  including  not  a  few  of  a  missionary 


6  PREFACE. 

character.  One  of  these,  Dr.  "NV.  Butler's  "  Land  of  the 
Vedas,"  is  an  able  and  elaborate  work,  and  treats  of  the  same 
denominational  interests  as  the  present  book;  but  the  field 
has  expanded  to  such  vast  proportions  since  Dr.  Butler's  book 
was  published  that,  although  it  still  maintains  its  position 
as  a  recognized  authority,  it  no  longer  fully  represents  the 
work  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  India,  and  of 
course  fails  to  take  in  Malaysia.  The  recent  work  of  Bishop 
Hurst  is  exhaustive,  and  written  in  full  sympathy  with  the 
great  missionary  enterprise,  but  in  the  main  is  a  work  of  more 
general  character,  and  only  treats  of  missionary  interests  as 
one  of  a  long  list  of  subjects  which  demand  attention.  The 
object  and  scope  of  the  present  work  are  wholly  different, 
and  do  not  bring  it  into  either  rivalry  or  contrast  with  the 
works  of  these  two  distinguished  writers. 

The  present  is  a  critical  period  in  the  history  of  Chris- 
tian missions  throughout  the  world.  The  Church  of  Christ 
stands  upon  the  threshold  of  the  second  century  of  this  great 
enterprise,  and  practical  Christians  in  both  Europe  and 
America  are  beginning  to  ask,  in  a  tone  which  brooks  neither 
evasion  nor  denial,  What  are  the  results  of  the  past,  and 
what  the  outlook  for  the  future? — questions  which  demand  the 
most  full  and  frank  answers.  The  following  pages  have  been 
written  with  the  honest  and  earnest  desire  of  putting  the 
situation  as  it  now  exists  in  India  and  Malaysia  before  the 
Christian  public  of  America,  and  thereby  contributing,  in 
some  small  measure  at  least,  to  an  increase  of  the  faith,  zeal, 
and  devotion  of  the  supporters  of  the  missionary  enterprise — 
an  enterprise  which,  a  century  hence,  will  have  been  recog- 
nized as  the  absorbing  movement  of  the  age,  the  mightiest 

movement  on  the  globe. 

J.  M.  T. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE. 

INDIA, 13 

CHAPTER  II. 
THE  PEOPLE  OF  INDIA, 27 

CHAPTER  III. 
THE  EMPIRE  OF  INDIA, 42 

CHAPTER  IV. 
INDIA  AND  ENGLAND, 57 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA, 71 

CHAPTER  VI. 
HINDUISM, 83 

CHAPTER  VII. 
BUDDHISM, 97 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
MOHAMMEDANISM, •  •  112 

CHAPTER  IX. 
INDIAN  DEVOTEES, 124 

CHAPTER  X. 
NEW  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS, 141 

CHAPTER  XL 

EARLY  CHRISTIANITY  IN  INDIA, 153 

7 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

PAGE. 

ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MISSIONS  IN  INDIA, 161 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
PROTESTANT  MISSIONS  IN  INDIA, 175 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
FRANCIS  XAVIEK,  190 

CHAPTER  XV. 
WILLIAM  CABBY,  206 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  FIRST  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  MISSION  IN  INDIA, 219 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
THE  TASK  IN  ITS  SIMPLEST  FORM, 235 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
THE  TASK  IN  ITS  LARGER  PROPORTIONS, 249 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
THE  FIRST  STAGE  OF  THE  WORK, 263 

CHAPTER  XX. 
THE  SECOND  STAGE  OP  PROGRESS, 279 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
CROSSING  THE  INDIAN  RUBICON, 291 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
HIDDEN  RESOURCES, 303 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
ENGLISH  WORK, 316 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
MISSION-SCHOOLS, 329 


CONTENTS.  9 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

PAGE 
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS  IN  INDIA, 341 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
THE  WOMEN  OF  INDIA, 355 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
EDUCATION  AMONG  WOMEN, 369 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
MEDICAL  WORK  FOR  WOMEN, 380 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 
WOMAN  IN  THE  CHURCH, 389 

CHAPTER  XXX. 
THE  DEPRESSED  CLASSES, 398 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 
OPEN  DOORS, 412 

« 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 
THE  PANJAB  AND  WESTERN  ASIA, 425 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 
BENGAL, 434 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 
BURMA, 443 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 
CENTRAL  AND  SOUTH  INDIA, %  .  .  .  455 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 
LIFE  IN  INDIA, 463 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 
INDIAN  Music, 473 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 
MALAYSIA 483 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

PAGE. 

THE  STRAITS  SETTLEMENTS,   .   - 505 

CHAPTER  XL. 
THE  MALAYSIAN  MISSION, 520 

CHAPTER  XLI. 
THE  LATEST  REPORT, 537 

CHAPTER  XLII. 
PENDING  QUESTIONS, 553 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

FIRST  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  IN  INDIA, Frontispiece. 

A  HINDU  MELA,  OR  FAIR, 82 

A  HINDU  DEVOTEE, 127 

FRANCIS  XAVIER, 190 

WILLIAM  CAREY, 207 

WILLIAM  BUTLER,  D.  D., 224 

OUR  EARLY  MISSIONARIES  IN  INDIA, 234 

THREE  INDIAN  PRESIDING  ELDERS, 262 

BISHOP  WILLIAM  TAYLOR, 296 

LUCKNOW  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGE, 328 

Miss  LILAVATI  SINGH,  B.  A., 337 

MOHAMMEDAN  YOUNG  WOMEN, 354 

Miss  ISABELLA  TIIOBURN, 356 

Miss  ELLEN  D'ABREU,  B.  M., 374 

MRS.  SOPHIA  D'ABREU  THOMPSON,  B.  A., 375 

Miss  CHANDRA  MUKIII  Boss,  M.  A., 377 

Miss  C.  A.  SWAIN,  M.  D., 380 

LUCKNOW  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOL-GIRLS, 388 

A  GUJARATI  GROUP, 424 

A  MARATHA  GROUP, 431 

A  BURMESE  WOMAN, 446 

A  TELUGU  FAMILY, 458 

A  TAMIL  GROUP, 460 

A  MALAY  FAMILY, •    •    •, 491 

THE  SULTAN  OP  JOHORE, 509 

GROUP  OP  DYAKS, 531 

DYAK  WOMEN, 533 


INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 


Chapter  I. 

INDIA. 

IF  a  line  were  drawn  from  the  city  of  Atlanta  to  the  middle 
of  the  southern  boundary  of  Oregon,  and  if  along  this  line 
a  range  of  lofty  mountains  were  reared  up,  covered  with  ever- 
lasting snow  and  buttressed  with  gigantic  peaks  rising  from 
twenty  to  twenty-nine  thousand  feet  into  the  sky,  this  mount- 
ain range  would  represent  the  vast  boundary-wall  of  North- 
ern India.  If  another  line  were  drawn  from  Atlanta  to  Lake 
Erie,  and  thence  a  third  line  to  a  point  in  British  Columbia, 
and  this  again  connected  with  the  point  first  named  in  South- 
ern Oregon,  and  the  space  thus  inclosed,  amounting  to  a 
million  square  miles,  elevated  fifteen  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea-level,  it  would  represent  that  extraordinary  elevation  in 
Central  Asia  sometimes  called  the  "  roof  of  the  world,"  which 
has  through  uncounted  centuries  helped  to  shut  in  both  India 
and  China  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  which  has  contrib- 
uted in  a  marked  degree  to  give  India,  especially,  some  of 
those  peculiarities  of  season  and  climate  for  which  it  is  noted. 
If,  now,  an  irregular  mass  of  lower  but  still  lofty  mountains 
be  thrown  in  between  Atlanta  and  the  Gulf  at  one  extremity 
of  this  line,  and  the  Oregon  terminus  and  the  Pacific  Ocean 
at  the  other  extremity,  the  northeastern,  northern,  and  north- 
western boundaries  will  be  complete,  and  it  only  remains  to 
fill  in  to  the  southward  a  vast  peninsula  extending  to  a  point 
nineteen  hundred  miles  south  of  Oregon,  making  a  large,  pear- 


14  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

shaped  region  nearly  as  large  as  all  the  United  States  lying 
east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  containing  a  million  and  a 
half  square  miles,  to  present  a  territory  corresponding  to  his- 
toric India.  This  comparison  will  strikingly  exhibit  the 
small  area  of  North  America  as  compared  with  that  of  Asia. 
On  the  map  of  Asia,  India  looks  like  one  of  a  dozen  countries, 
and  does  not  extend  half-way  across  the  continent.  On  the 
map  of  North  America,  not  only  would  its  northern  boundary 
need  to  be  pushed  northward,  but  its  outlying  mountain  spurs 
would  touch  two  oceans,  and  a  vast  region  have  to  be  filled 
in  to  the  south  to  complete  its  area. 

The  name  India  has  been  applied  to  this  region  since  a 
very  early  day.  It  would  seem  that  the  early  Aryans,  who 
entered  India  through  the  northwest  passes,  applied  the 
Sanskrit  word  Sindhus  (ocean)  to  the  great  river  Indus, 
which  they  found  probably  flowing  in  the  rainy  season  in  a 
volume  which  would  remind  them  of  the  sea.  This  name, 
in  the  lapse  of  time,  was  also  applied  to  the  people  who 
lived  on  the  upper 'banks  of  the  river,  and  still  lingers  in 
India  in  the  province  of  Sindh,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
and  in  the  Sindhi  people,  who  are  its  chief  inhabitants.  The 
Zoroastrian  branch  of  the  ancient  Aryans,  who,  at  an  early 
period,  lived  side  by  side  with  those  who  migrated  into  In- 
dia, softened  the  initial  sibilant  of  the  word  Sindhus  into  7i, 
and  have  been  followed  in  this  change  by  both  the  ancient 
and  modern  Persians.  The  Greeks,  in  turn,  further  soft- 
ened the  word  by  dismissing  the  Persian  aspirate  altogether, 
and  thus  in  time  the  name  India  has  come  into  use  through- 
out all  the  "Western  world.  In  more  recent  times  the  Per- 
sians have  applied  the  word  Hindustan  to  that  part  of  India 
lying  north  of  the  Vindhya  Mountains,  meaning  the  place 
or  country  of  the  Hindu.  Strictly  speaking,  neither  the 
word  Hindustan  nor  India  applies  to  that  part  of  the  em- 
pire south  of  the  Vindhya  Mountains,  but  in  all  past  ages 
this  distinction  has  been  lost  sight  of  by  those  at  a  distance; 
and  since  the  various  nations  and  tribes  of  this  region  have 


ITS  GEOGRAPHY.  15 

been  welded  into  one  vast  empire  by  the  British  power,  the 
term  India  has  been  applied  to  the  whole  region  without 
any  attempt  to  limit  its  application. 

AVriters  on  India  frequently  divide  the  country  into  three 
sections, — the  first  including  the  mountains  of  the  Himalaya 
range ;  the  second,  the  plains  of  Northern  India ;  and  the 
third,  the  table-land  of  Central  and  Southern  India.  This 
division,  however,  is  somewhat  arbitrary,  and  does  not  con- 
vey a  very  clear  idea  of  the  actual  configuration  of  the 
country.  Immediately  south  of  the  snow-line  of  the  Him- 
alayas is  a  belt  of  lower  mountains,  with  an  average  width 
of  perhaps  one  hundred  miles,  inhabited  by  various  tribes  of 
mountaineers,  and  furnishing  valuable  supplies  of  mountain 
products  to  the  plains  below.  The  great  rivers  of  Northern 
India,  which  are  fed  by  the  snows  of  the  Himalayas  proper, 
and  the  plateau  lying  to  the  northward,  have  brought  down 
an  immense  alluvial  deposit,  which  is  spread  over  the  whole 
of  Northern  India  and  down  the  valley  of  the  Ganges, 
making  one  of  the  richest  and  best  cultivated  plains  of  the 
world. 

At  a  distance  of  several  hundred  miles  from  the  mountains 
the  country  begins  to  rise,  and  long  before  it  reaches  the 
Vindhya  Mountains,  a  range  which  crosses  India  from  east 
to  west  about  the  middle  of  the  country,  the  land  has  be- 
come an  elevated  plateau.  Immediately  south  of  this  mount- 
ain range  is  a  rich  valley  through  which  the  Nerbudda  River 
flows  westward,  dividing  the  greater  part  of  the  country  into 
two  somewhat  distinct  sections.  South  of  this  valley  is  an- 
other range  of  mountains  called  the  Satpuras,  which  forms 
the  northern  boundary  of  a  triangular  plateau  known  as  the 
Deccan,  or  South  Country.  This  plateau  has  an  average  ele- 
vation of  nearly  two  thousand  feet,  and  is  hemmed  in  on  the 
west  by  a  line  of  mountains  running  parallel  with  the  ocean 
from  the  northwest  to  the  southeast,  A  similar  but  somewhat 
lower  range  shuts  in  the  plateau  on  the  eastern  side.  These 
two  ranges  are  called  respectively  the  Eastern  and  Western 


16  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Ghats,  the  former  having  an  average  height  of  about  fifteen 
hundred  feet,  and  the  latter  of  three  thousand. 

The  great  rivers  of  India  are  chiefly  those  which  have 
their  sources  in  the  Himalayas.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  all 
these  streams  except  the  Ganges  take  their  rise,  not  in  India 
proper,  but  on  the  northern  side  of  the  Himalayas,  in  Thibet. 
The  Brahmaputra  not  only  takes  its  rise  to  the  northward  of 
the  mountains,  but  flows  for  the  greater  part  of  its  course  at 
a  great  elevation  along  a  valley  between  the  Himalayas 
proper  and  another  snowy  range  which  lies  in  Thibet  to  the 
north.  Of  all  these  rivers,  the  Indus,  Ganges,  and  Brahma- 
putra take  the  precedence.  The  Indus  is  a  very  large  stream ; 
but  throughout  nearly  all  its  lower  course,  like  the  Nile,  it 
flows  through  a  desert,  and  hence  it  is  only  on  its  upper 
course,  near  the  mountains,  or  indeed  among  the  mountains, 
that  the  tremendous  volume  of  water  which  it  discharges  into 
the  sea  can  be  appreciated  by  a  spectator.  The  Ganges  has 
many  tributaries,  one  of  them,  indeed — the  Gogra — being 
larger  than  the  Ganges  itself  at  the  point  of  union,  and  hence 
it  carries  down  to  the  sea  an  amazing  volume  of  water.  The 
Mississippi,  when  its  banks  are  full,  discharges  1,200,000 
cubic  feet  of  water  every  second ;  the  Nile,  362,000 ;  the 
Ganges,  1,800,000.  The  Brahmaputra  is  unknown  to  India 
until  it  suddenly  sweeps  around  the  southeastern  base  of  the 
Himalaya  range,  and  bursts  forth  into  the  Assam  Valley  in 
all  its  strength.  It  was  formerly  considered  larger  than  the 
Ganges,  but  it  has  been  ascertained  that  in  the  rainy  season 
its  discharge  per  second  is  only  a  little  more  than  500,000 
cubic  feet.  This,  however,  still  gives  it  a  prominent  place 
among  the  great  rivers  of  the  world.  Only  two  rivers  of  any 
size  flow  westward  into  the  ocean — the  Nerbudda,  spoken  of 
above,  and  the  Tapti,  which  flows  parallel  with  it,  and  at  but 
a  short  distance  from  it.  Three  rivers  of  considerable  size 
discharge  their  waters  into  the  Bay  of  Bengal  on  the  eastern 
side  of  India — the  Godavery,  the  Kistna,  and  the  Kaveri. 
The  rivers  of  India  are  not  well  adapted  to  steamer  traffic. 


ITS  GEOGRAPHY.  17 

The  force  of  their  currents,  and  the  treacherous  nature  of  the 
sands  which  they  all  bring  down  from  the  mountains,  make  it 
difficult  for  steamers  to  ply  for  traffic,  as  is  so  common  on 
American  rivers.  An  immense  traffic,  however,  is  carried  on 
by  native  boats,  some  of  them  of  considerable  size,  but  most 
of  them  very  small.  On  the  Ganges,  boats  may  be  constantly 
seen,  sometimes  carried  upward  by  the  force  of  clumsy  and 
often  ragged  sails,  but  very  often  slowly  drawn  by  the  boat- 
men walking  on  shore  and  tugging  with  ropes.  The  down- 
ward passage,  of  course,  is  made  more  easily.  The  immense 
delta  of  the  Ganges  and  Brahmaputra — for  the  two  rivers 
unite  before  reaching  the  sea  and  have  a  common  delta — is 
intercepted  by  numberless  natural  canals  and  estuaries,  on 
which  a  constant  traffic  is  carried  on.  Some  little  idea  of  the 
vast  extent  and  activity  of  this  river-traffic  can  be  formed 
from  the  statement  that  at  the  city  of  Patna,  on  the  Ganges, 
61,000  boats  have  been  registered  as  passing  up  or  down  in 
the  course  of  a  single  year.  At  Hugli,  a  town  about  twenty- 
five  miles  above  Calcutta,  124,000  boats  of  all  sizes  and  kinds 
passed  in  a  single  year.  The  river-borne  trade  of  the  city  of 
Calcutta  amounts  to  no  less  than  $100,000,000  a  year,  and 
when  it  is  remembered  that  nearly  all  of  this  is  carried  on 
clumsy  native  boats,  some  idea  can  be  formed,  not  only  of  the 
number  of  these  river  craft,  but  of  the  vast  number  of  boat- 
men employed  in  the  service. 

The  rivers  of  India  are  noted  perhaps  beyond  those  of  any 
other  part  of  the  world,  unless  it  be  Africa,  for  the  amount  of 
silt  which  they  carry  down  to  the  sea.  If  it  be  true  that  the 
Nile  has  made  Egypt,  it  is  equally  true  that  the  Ganges  has 
made  Bengal,  while  every  river  flowing  into  the  sea  has  in 
like  manner  built  up  its  own  delta.  The  Ganges  and  Brah- 
maputra carry  down  more  silt  than  the  Indus,  the  Brahma- 
putra taking  the  lead  in  this  respect.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  it  would  require  240,000  steamers,  each  of  1,400  tons 
burden,  to  carry  the  amount  of  deposit  which  is  brought  down 
by  the  Ganges  alone  during  the  four  months  of  the  rainy  sea- 


1 8  INDIA  AND  M.  //../)  'SI.  I. 

son.  The  mind  fails  to  realize  how  vast  this  yearly  accumu- 
lation must  be,  and  yet  it  is  not  perceptibly  noticed  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river.  It  is  true  that  thousands  of  acres  are 
thrown  up  each  year,  not  only  in  the  delta  but  at  many  points 
in  the  upper  course  of  the  stream;  but  while  new  land  is  thus 
constantly  forming,  large  slices  of  cultivated  land  are  swept 
away  from  time  to  time,  so  that  the  poor  native  does  not 
notice  that  the  river  makes  much  amends  for  the  loss  which 
it  so  often  inflicts  upon  him.  Nevertheless,  the  land  is  stead- 
ily gaining  on  the  ocean ;  and  as  the  silt  which  is  brought 
down  is  of  the  richest  possible  quality,  those  who  cultivate 
near  the  river  not  only  often  have  their  lands  fertilized  by 
the  deposits  left  by  the  floods,  but  also  at  times  secure  new 
fields  thrown  up  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  which  furnish 
fruitful  farms  for  years  to  come.  I  have  myself  seen  wheat 
growing,  rich  and  green,  in  the  month  of  December,  on  fields 
where  I  had  seen  the  water  flowing  fifty  feet  deep  six  months 
before. 

In  speaking  of  the  rivers  of  India,  the  canals  must  not  be 
overlooked.  The  Indian  Government  has  conferred  a  very 
great  benefit  upon  a  country  liable  to  a  precarious  rain-fall  by 
constructing  a  large  number  of  canals,  chiefly  for  irrigating 
purposes.  Those  in  connection  with  the  Ganges  and  Jumna 
Rivers  include  no  less  than  1,564  miles  of  main  line,  with 
6,000  miles  of  smaller  distributing  channels.  Throughout  the 
whole  of  India,  nearly  30,000,000  acres  of  land  are  irrigated  by 
these  Government  canals.  The  value  of  these  to  the  country 
can  be  estimated  when  it  is  stated  that  this  includes  14.8  per 
cent  of  all  the  cultivated  land  in  India.  It  may  not  be  gen- 
erally known  that  the  Californians  and  other  residents  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  have  given  special  attention  to  the  system  of 
irrigation  adopted  in  India,  and  are  rapidly  pushing  forward 
similar  works  in  those  parts  of  the  country  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  where  the  rain-fall  is  insufficient. 

It  is  not  generally  known  to  the  outside  world,  especially 
in  America,  that  India  has  an  excellent  system  of  railway 


RAILWAYS.  19 

communication,  which  is  even  more  deserving  of  notice  than 
her  canals.  A  few  years  before  the  Sepoy  Mutiny  of  1857,  a 
plan  had  been  formally  adopted  for  building  a  few  great  trunk- 
lines  connecting  the  chief  cities  of  the  empire,  but  the  work 
was  necessarily  interrupted  for  a  number  of  years  by  the 
Mutiny  and  the  financial  stringency  which  followed  it.  That 
great  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  empire,  however,  had  the 
effect  of  showing  how  absolutely  necessary  it  was,  for  mili- 
tary purposes  if  for  no  other  reason,  to  have  India  thor- 
oughly provided  with  an  efficient  railway  system.  The  work 
was  taken  in  hand  with  great  vigor  about  thirty  years  ago, 
and  has  been  carried  forward  with  as  much  speed  as  could 
have  been  expected  in  view  of  the  peculiar  difficulty  of  such 
an  undertaking  in  a  country  like  India.  The  whole  num- 
ber of  miles  in  operation  is  about  16,000.  Other  lines  have 
been  projected  in  various  directions,  and  no  doubt  a  vast 
extension  of  what  are  called  "  feeder  lines  "  will  be  carried 
out  before  many  years. 

These  railways  have  been  constructed  in  three  different 
ways.  The  first  plan  adopted  was  that  of  offering  a  Govern- 
ment guaranty  of  five  per  cent  on  all  the  capital  invested 
by  any  company  which  would  undertake  the  building  of  a 
line  approved  by  the  Government.  Thirty  years  ago  even 
this  liberal  offer  barely  sufficed  to  bring  to  India  the  capital 
necessary  for  building  the  main  lines  which  now  connect  the 
great  cities  of  Bombay,  Madras,  Calcutta,  and  Delhi.  The 
success,  however,  of  the  first  attempts  at  railway  building 
was  such  as  to  encourage  capitalists  in  England  to  make  fur- 
ther ventures,  and  a  number  of  important  lines  have  since 
been  constructed  by  private  companies  without  any  guaranty 
whatever.  Other  lines,  again,  have  been  built  by  the  Gov- 
ernment without  any  assistance  from  private  parties,  and 
are  known  as  State  railways.  In  like  manner,  a  number  of 
the  rulers  of  native  States  have  constructed  similar  railways 
within  their  own  territories.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the 
Government,  with  a  far-seeing  wisdom  which  might  be  irm- 


20  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

tatod  in  more  favored  lands,  when  giving  a  guaranty  of  five 
per  cent  interest  on  all  investments  in  Indian  railways,  re- 
served the  right  of  taking  over  the  entire  railway  after  a 
certain  term  of  years  if  it  should  be  found  convenient  to  do 
so.  This  right  has  already  been  exercised  in  the  case  of 
several  leading  lines,  and  thus  the  Indian  Government  is 
now  possessed  of  valuable  properties  which  must,  as  the 
years  go  by,  yield  a  constantly  increasing  revenue.  Amer- 
ican statesmen  might  profitably  take  a  leaf  out  of  this  chap- 
ter of  Indian  history.  The  American  people  have  been 
strangely  reckless  in  throwing  away  valuable  franchises  of 
this  kind,  especially  in  the  great  cities.  The  American  rail- 
way system,  if  properly  controlled,  might  easily  be  made  to 
pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  various  State  Governments,  and 
thus  relieve  the  people  of  the  heavy  burden  of  direct  taxa- 
tion under  which  they  are  becoming  somewhat  restive. 

In  a  region  so  large  as  India  it  could  not  be  expected 
that  the  climate  would  be  uniform,  and  yet  it  presents  cer- 
tain features  which  may  be  spoken  of  as  peculiarly  Indian. 
Throughout  the  whole  empire,  with  the  exception  of  the 
southern  end  of  the  peninsula,  the  year  may  be  divided  into 
three  seasons — cold,  hot,  and  dry.  The  cold  season  begins 
in  Northern  India  about  the  first  of  October.  At  Calcutta 
aod  Bombay  it  is  hardly  recognized  as  having  begun  before 
November.  With  the  exception  of  about  a  week  near  the 
close  of  December,  it  seldom  rains  during  this  season.  In 
all  Northern  India,  from  October  to  March,  the  weather  is 
delightful,  and  the'sky,  for  the  most  part,  cloudless.  People 
can  make  their  arrangements  months  beforehand,  without  any 
fear  of  having  their  plans  broken  up  by  bad  weather.  At 
points  as  far  south  as  Lucknow  or  Benares,  a  white  frost 
sometimes  forms  in  late  December  or  early  January,  and  a 
very  thin  coating  of  ice  may  sometimes  be  seen  on  the  water 
if  it  is  exposed  in  a  shallow  vessel  and  in  a  damp  place.  In 
Calcutta  and  Bombay  frost  is  never  seen.  Houses  are  never 
built  with  chimneys,  and  fire  is  rarely  introduced  into  any 


CLIMATE,  21 

dwelling.  In  North  India,  on  the  other  hand,  during  the 
three  or  four  months  of  the  cold  season,  a  fire  in  the  evening 
is  found  very  comfortable,  although  many  persons  do  not 
avail  themselves  of  the  luxury.  As  the  cold  season  advances, 
a  steady,  and  sometimes  strong  west  wind  begins  to  blow, 
and  the  signs  of  the  approaching  hot  season  become  unmis- 
takable. The  evenings  and  nights  still  continue  cool,  even  as 
late  as  March.  In  Calcutta  and  Bombay,  however,  it  is  usually 
quite  warm  before  the  middle  of  March.  By  the  month  of 
April  the  west  wind  has  become  a  hot  wind;  with  the  excep- 
tion of  fruit  and  forest  trees,  vegetation  has  wholly  disap- 
peared; not  a  blade  of  grass  is  to  be  seen ;  every  day  the  hot 
west  wind  blows  with  increasing  intensity,  and  people  take 
refuge  from  it  as  they  do  from  cold  in  more  northern  climes. 
The  month  of  May  is  a  trying  month,  on  account  of  the  ex- 
treme heat — especially  in  North  India.  It  is  a  common  mis- 
take for  persons  in  America  to  suppose  that  the  farther  north 
they  go  in  India,  the  cooler  they  will  find  it;  and  young  mis- 
sionaries very  frequently  make  the  mistake  of  asking  for  a 
station  in  North  India,  on  the  ground  that  they  can  not  very 
well  endure  heat,  and  do  not  wish  to  risk  their  health  by  ex- 
posure to  the  hot  winds  of  Southern  India.  The  rule  works  in 
exactly  the  opposite  way.  The  nearer  one  is  to  the  equator, 
the  cooler  it  %  seems.  At  Rangoon  it  is  found  to  be  much 
hotter  than  at  Singapore,  which  is  only  ninety  miles  from  the 
equator;  in  Calcutta,  again,  it  is  much  warmer  than  in  Ran- 
goon, while  as  we  pass  northward  the  thermometer  rises  in 
the  hot  months  until  it  actually  stands,  at  Delhi  and  Lahore, 
in  the  far  north,  at  a  figure  that  is  never  reached  in  Calcutta 
and  Bombay. 

By  the  month  of  June  the  heat  has  become  intense. 
About  this  time,  to  use  the  phrase  commonly  adopted  in 
India,  the  "monsoon  bursts."  All  over  the  empire  there  is 
intense  anxiety  to  hear  of  the  approach  of  the  rains.  About 
the  first  of  June — sometimes  a  little  earlier — the  telegraph 
announces  that  the  monsoon  has  burst  on  the  western  coast 


22  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

of  Ceylon  and  along  the  extreme  southwestern  coast  of 
India.  Each  day  the  rains  creep  northward.  In  a  week  or 
so  they  have  reached  Bombay,  and  by  the  20th  of  June  they 
have  usually  extended  throughout  all  India.  A  marked 
change  of  temperature  follows  the  advent  of  the  rains.  The 
thermometer  will  perhaps  fall  fifteen  to  twenty  degrees  at  the 
first  down-pour.  The  whole  landscape,  which  has  been  utterly 
desolate  for  three  months,  and  which  at  last  looks  as  if  it  had 
been  sprinkled  over  with  ashes,  is  clothed  in  richest  green  in 
the  course  of  three  or  four  days.  Vegetation  of  every  kind 
springs  into  wonderful  activity;  the  birds  seem  as  if  filled 
with  new  life ;  multitudes  of  frogs  come  from  no  one  knows 
where,  and  revel  in  every  pond  and  puddle  to  be  seen  over 
the  level  fields.  The  people  come  out  of  their  hamlets  with 
light  and  happy  step,  and  all  nature  seems  revived.  During 
the  next  three  or  four  months  India  is  a  beautiful  country, 
clothed  everywhere  in  richest  green,  and  filled  with  every 
form  of  active  and  joyous  life.  It  does  not  rain  constantly, 
but  one  or  more  showers  may  be  expected  every  day.  The 
evenings  and  mornings  are  delightful,  and  in  no  land  do  the 
clouds  present  a  grander  spectacle  than  when  banked  up 
along  the  western  sky  at  sunset,  with  great  billowy  edges 
upturned  toward  the  setting  sun,  and  glowing  in  the  rich 
light  with  which  the  evening  sun  bathes  a  tropical  landscape. 
Not  every  one,  however,  enjoys  this  season.  The  air,  if 
cooler,  is  more  sultry,  and  the  houses  become  damp,  and  to 
some  people  uncomfortable.  Sickness  is  apt  to  be  more  prev- 
alent than  when  the  heat  is  greatest.  As  in  northern  climes 
the  cold  is  little  felt  and  inflicts  little  injury  on  invalids  when 
the  atmosphere  is  perfectly  dry,  so  in  India  the  excessive 
heat  is  not  felt  as  an  affliction  so  long  as  the  air  is  per- 
fectly dry. 

The  average  rain-fall  varies  greatly  in  different  parts  of 
India.  In  the  stations  on  the  outer  ranges  of  the  Himalaya 
Mountains  it  reaches  a  point  which  in  America  would  be  con- 
sidered very  excessive.  At  Naini  Tal  it  is  a  little  more  than 


CLIMATE.  23 

91  inches ;  at  Mussoorie,  farther  west,  it  is  94  inches ;  at 
Simla,  71  inches;  while  at  Darjeeling,  far  to  the  eastward,  it 
reaches  120  inches.  On  the  plains  the  fall  is,  of  course,  lighter, 
and  in  the  western  part  of  the  Punjab  it  does  not  exceed 
7  or  8  inches  in  the  year.  Throughout  the  plains  of  North 
India,  including  the  eastern  half  of  the  Punjab,  the  rain-fall 
averages  from  25  to  45  inches,  while  in  Bengal  the  average 
rises  to  67  inches.  Throughout  the  Madras  Presidency  the 
average  is  44,  and  in  Bombay  67  inches.  On  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal  the  rain-fall  is  very  heavy,  ranging 
from  212,  the  highest  average  recorded,  to  174.  The  lowest 
average  rain-fall  in  what  was  recently  British  Burma,  is  47 
inches.  Throughout  Assam,  the  name  of  the  great  valley  of 
the  Brahmaputra,  the  rain-fall  is  the  heaviest  known  in  the 
world.  At  Cherra  Poonjee,  a  station  in  Assam,  the  average 
annual  rain-fall  is  no  less  than  481  inches,  and  in  the  year 
1861  it  actually  rose  to  805  inches !  During  that  year,  in 
the  month  of  July  alone,  there  was  a  rain-fall  of  366  inches. 
The  reader  can  hardly  realize  what  such  a  record  means.  In 
that  one  month  of  July,  1861,  more  than  thirty  feet  of  water 
fell  in  that  one  region,  while  throughout  the  year  the  rain- 
fall was  sufficient  to  have  covered  the  entire  province  67  feet 
deep  with  water.  Even  in  an  average  year  enough  rain  falls 
to  flood  the  whole  country  to  a  depth  of  more  than  40  feet. 
This,  however,  is  exceptional.  In  various  other  parts  of 
India,  especially  among  the  mountains  and  higher  hills,  ex- 
ceptional rain-falls  have  been  registered ;  but  taking  the 
country  throughout,  the  average  fall  is  less  than  a  stranger 
would  be  led  to  suppose  from  an  occasional  view  of  a  tropical 
rain-storm. 

The  rains  begin  to  abate  usually  early  in  September,  al- 
though the  season  differs  somewhat  in  different  parts  of  the 
country.  The  most  sickly  season  of  the  year  is  then  close  at 
hand.  The  air  is  still  and  steamy,  and  decaying  vegetation 
is  almost  sure  to  produce  more  or  less  malaria.  The  ueat 
also  becomes  for  a  short  time  very  oppressive,  and  it  is  not 


24  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

until  the  west  wind  begins  to  blow  again — which,  throughout 
Northern  India,  it  usually  does  in  October — that  much  com- 
fort is  found  by  those  who  li\7e  in  India  like  exotics  in  a 
sheltered  garden.  The  three  seasons,  however,  have  now  run 
their  course.  The  cold  season  is  close  at  hand,  and  all 
strangers  in  India  are  more  than  ready  to  give  it  an  eager 
welcome. 

India  has  long  been  famous  throughout  the  world  for  its 
supposed  wealth,  especially  of  the  precious  metals  and  gems. 
This  reputation,  however,  has  not  been  at  all  deserved.  On 
the  other  hand,  India,  as  compared  with  other  great  regions 
on  the  globe,  is  comparatively  poor.  It  has  a  productive 
soil  in  the  northern  plains;  but  throughout  all  the  great 
plateaus  the  soil,  though  rich  on  the  surface,  is  very  shallow 
and  not  capable  of  producing  very  heavy  crops.  As  for  sil- 
ver and  gold,  it  is  probable  that  in  very  remote  ages  gold 
was  found  in  considerable  quantities;  but  diligent  search 
during  the  English  period  has  only  brought  to  light  a  few 
mining  regions,  in  which  it  barely  pays  to  mine  for  gold, 
with  all  the  appliances  which  modern  science  is  able  to  bring 
to  the  miner's  assistance.  Traces  of  silver  are  still  more  rare. 
Diamonds  and  other  precious  stones  are  found  at  a  few 
points;  but  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  India,  or  any 
province  of  it,  is  a  rich  Golconda,  where  one  has  only  to  turn 
up  the  earth  to  find  gems  of  every  kind  in  abundance.  Iron 
abounds,  and  the  ore  is  said  to  be  of  excellent  quality  in 
many  places ;  but  owing  to  the  absence  of  coal,  very  little  use 
has  been  made  of  it.  It  is  much  cheaper  to  import  iron  from 
Europe  than  to  get  it  from  the  Indian  mines  and  either  bring 
it  to  a  place  where  fuel  can  be  found,  or  take  the  fuel  to 
where  the  iron  is  located.  Copper-mines  have  been  worked 
in  the  Himalayas  to  some  little  extent;  but  such  as  are  now 
known  can  not  compete  with  the  richer  mines  of  other  coun- 
tries. Various  deposits  of  coal  have  been  found  in  recent 
years,  and  these  have  proved  of  more  value  than  all  the  gold 
and  other  metals  that  have  been  sought  for  so  diligently  for 


PRODUCTIONS.  25 

ages  past.  The  coal  is  good,  though  not  of  superior  quality, 
and  is  not  only  of  great  value  to  the  railways,  but  no  doubt 
will  prove  a  most  important  factor  in  the  manufacturing  era 
which  must  come  to  this  country  at  no  distant  day.  Lead  has 
also  been  found  in  small  quantities,  and  a  few  other  minerals, 
but  none  of  them  in  quantities  which  would  give  any  promise 
of  profitable  returns  to  the  miner.  Very  valuable  deposits  of 
salt  are  found  in  some  parts  of  the  country;  but  these  are  rig- 
idly preserved  as  Government  monopolies,  and  hence  prove 
of  but  little  value  to  the  people  at  large.  Saltpeter  has  long 
been  a  valuable  article  of  export  from  India. 

The  forests  of  India  have  always  been  valuable,  and  are 
now  becoming  increasingly  so,  under  the  enlightened  system 
of  forest-preservation  which  has  been  introduced  by  the 
Indian  Government.  During  the  past  twenty-five  or  thirty 
years  various  large  tracts  of  land  have  been  set  apart  for  the 
growth  of  forests,  the  whole  amounting  to  an  area  larger  than 
that  of  the  State  of  New  York.  Officers  who  have  been  thor- 
oughly trained  in  forestry  are  placed  in  charge  of  these 
tracts,  and  the  trees  are  cut  under  a  system  which  provides 
for  the  steady  replenishing  of  the  forest  from  year  to  year,  so 
that  not  only  is  the  value  of  each  tract  preserved,  but  it  is 
constantly  enhanced.  Here  again  the  Americans  might  learn 
a  lesson  from  the  Indian  Government.  It  has  been  remarked 
a  thousand  times,  in  vain,  that  the  next  generation  in  America 
will  bitterly  lament  the  want  of  foresight  of  those  who  are 
now  suffering  the  magnificent  forests  of  the  United  States  to 
be  destroyed. 

With  regard  to  the  field,  orchard,  and  garden  products, 
little  need  be  said  beyond  the  remark  that  nearly  all  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  tropical  world  may  be  found  in  India.  In 
the  northern  half  of  the  empire,  wheat,  barley,  Indian-corn, 
and  in  some  places  oats  and  rye,  grow  in  the  cold  season. 
Throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  empire,  rice  of  more  than 
fifty  kinds  is  cultivated,  while  varieties  of  the  millet  family 
are  found  in  great  abundance  in  every  part  of  the  country. 


26  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

The  pulse  family  also  is  well  represented  in  India,  and  cot- 
ton, indigo,  jute,  hemp,  flax,  and  other  field  products  too 
numerous  to  mention,  abound  in  regions  suited  to  their 
growth.  In  short,  India,  though  not  a  rich  country,  is  capa- 
ble of  supporting  a  vast  population  and  providing  liberally 
for  its  wants,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  at  the  present  time  af- 
fords a  home  to  one-fifth  of  the  human  race. 


Chapter   II. 
THE  PEOPLE  OF  INDIA. 

IF  it  is  difficult  to  make  persons  of  average  intelligence  in 
Europe  and  America  form  correct  notions  of  the  vast  ter- 
ritorial extent  of  India,  it  is  still  more  difficult  to  get  them 
to  understand  that  it  is  not  a  country  inhabited  by  a  single 
race.  tl  What  kind  of  people  are  the  natives  of  India  ?"  is  a 
question  constantly  asked  of  the  Indian  missionary  who  re- 
turns for  a  season  to  his  native  land.  As  well  might  an  Indian 
ask  what  kind  of  people  the  natives  of  Europe  are.  India  is, 
in  fact,  an  Asiatic  Europe,  about  equal  in  area  to  all  Europe 
west  of  Russia,  and  containing  more  distinct  and  separate  na- 
tions than  Europe  does.  These  nations  differ  even  more  widely 
than  those  of  Europe — not  only  in  language,  but  in  physique, 
temperament,  and  general  character.  It  is  very  true  that  some 
able  writers  have  protested  against  the  application  of  the  word 
"nation  "  to  any  of  the  distinct  peoples  found  in  India,  on  the 
ground  that  the  people  of  India  themselves  do  not  grasp  the 
national  idea  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  received  in  Europe. 
But  this  distinction  is  more  ideal  than  real.  Garibaldi's 
phrase,  "nationality,"  would  perhaps  more  properly  apply  to 
the  various  peoples  of  India,  who,  unfortunately,  in  their  past 
history  have  seldom  had  opportunities  for  developing  those 
national  feelings  which  are  common  to  all  races  and  tribes  of  the 
human  family.  Large  groups  of  people  are  found  in  India  as 
in  Europe,  separated  by  all  those  marks  which  distinguish 
nations,  unless  it  be  separate  political  existence ;  but  this  has 
not  uniformly  been  maintained  by  all  the  nations  of  Europe. 
From  time  immemorial  successive  invasions  of  India, 
sometimes  by  the  passes  of  the  northeast,  but  more  frequently 

27 


28  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

through  those  of  the  mountains  on  the  northwest,  have  fol- 
lowed one  another,  each  one  pushing  the  inhabitants  found  in 
the  country  up  into  the  mountain  regions,  or  farther  and 
farther  to  the  south.  The  common  term  "aborigines"  is 
applied  to  large  numbers  of  tribes  and  castes  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  but  often  with  more  or  less  uncer- 
tainty as  to  whether  the  term  belongs  to  the  people  in  ques- 
tion or  not.  In  some  remote  parts  of  the  empire  a  few 
wretched  wild  tribes  are  found,  living  in  a  state  of  very  low 
civilization,  who  may  possibly  be  the  descendants  of  the  ear- 
liest inhabitants  of  the  country.  This,  however,  is  only  con- 
jectural. Other  tribes,  however,  more  civilized  and  in  every 
way  superior  to  these  wild  men,  are  found  in  many  parts  of 
the  country,  and  are  more  popularly  known  as  aboriginal 
tribes.  Some  of  them  are  sufficiently  numerous  to  rank  as 
small  nations,  numbering  one  or  two  millions  of  inhabitants 
each.  Other  tribes  are  smaller,  and  widely  scattered.  It  is 
now  generally  conceded  that  the  first  great  invasions  of  the 
country  were  composed  of  Turanian  immigrants,  some  of 
them  from  Central  Asia,  and  some  from  the  region  north  of 
Burma.*  The  terms  Kolarian  and  Dravidian  have  been  ap- 
plied respectively  to  the  immigrants  from  the  northeastern 
and  northwestern  passes,  but  the  latter  seem  to  have  invaded 
the  country  in  larger  numbers,  and  to  have  held  together 
much  more  successfully  than  those  from  the  northeast.  As 
more  powerful  tribes  followed,  these  Dravidian  settlers  were 
from  time  to  time  forced  farther  southward,  until  at  last  they 
succeeded  in  establishing  themselves  in  four  different  regions, 
and  no  doubt  for  many  centuries  in  earlier  times  constituted 
independent  and  somewhat  powerful  kingdoms.  The  Aryan 
invaders,  who  have  become  well  known  since  the  discovery 
of  the  ancient  Sanskrit  literature  as  members  of  the  great 
Indo-European  family,  entered  India  at  least  ten  centuries 
before  Christ,  but  for  many  generations  they  worked  their 
way  very  slowly  towards  the  east  and  south.  It  is  evident 
from  their  most  ancient  literature  that  they  found  everywhere 


THE  PEOPLE.  29 

a  thickly  settled  country  and  encountered  hostile  enemies. 
In  time  they  learned  to  live  on  more  friendly  terms  with 
these  unknown  inhabitants  of  the  country,  who  gradually  be- 
came incorporated  into  their  body  politic,  and  now  form  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  of  the  country.  Who  these  people 
were  who  thus  encountered  the  Aryan  invaders  can  not  now 
be  known  with  certainty.  They  may  or  may  not  have  been 
remnants  of  the  great  Dravidian  invasion.  In  very  remote 
ages  there  seem  to  have  been  frequent  intermarriages  be- 
tween them  and  the  Aryan  settlers;  but  they  are  still,  for 
the  most  part,  quite  a  distinct  people  from  their  conquerors. 
The  pure-blooded  descendants  of  the  Aryan  invaders  are  com- 
paratively a  mere  handful  of  the  people  of  India.  The  Brah- 
mans  and  Rajputs  together,  who  constitute  almost  the  whole 
of  these  pure-blooded  Aryans,  do  not  number  much  more  than 
20,000,000  persons  out  of  the  284,000,000  found  in  India. 
The  great  mass  of  the  people  of  India  living  north  of  the 
Dravidian  nations  are  those  of  uncertain  origin.  It  is  a  sin- 
gular fact,  however,  and  one  worthy  of  notice,  that  after  a 
struggle  of  perhaps  thirty  centuries,  the  pure  Aryans  and  the 
pure  aborigines  are  found  in  about  equal  numerical  force 
throughout  the  empire  at  the  present  time. 

Of  the  distinct  nations  to  be  found  in  India  it  will  not 
be  necessary  to  mention  more  than  eleven,  the  smallest  of 
which  has  a  population  of  about  2,225,000.  Beginning  at 
the  extreme  southern  end  of  the  peninsula,  we  find  the  Mal- 
ayalam  people,  numbering  about  5,000,000,  and  speaking  one 
of  the  Dravidian  tongues.  North  and  northeast  of  them,  in- 
cluding the  city  of  Madras,  live  the  Tamil  people,  numbering 
14,500,000.  The  Tamil  language  is  said  to  be  the  most  dif- 
ficult one  in  India  for  a  European  to  learn.  Its  literature  is 
more  copious  and  more  valuable  than  that  found  in  any  of 
the  other  languages  of  Southern  India.  West  and  northwest 
of  the  Tamil  people,  including  the  well-known  province  of 
Mysore,  are  found  the  Kanarese  people,  numbering  9,500,000, 
while  north  and  northeast  from  the  Kauarese  region  live 


30  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

the  Telugus,  19,000,000  strong.  These  four  Dravidian 
nations  do  not  have  very  many  points  of  resemblance,  and 
are  easily  distinguished  by  any  one  who  has  seen  much  of 
Southern  India.  The  languages  are  kindred  tongues,  and 
yet  differ  as  widely  among  themselves  as  French  and  En- 
glish. Coming  up  the  west  coast  to  the  city  of  Bombay, 
we  find  the  Marathi  people,  who  inhabit  the  coast  and 
mountains,  and  part  of  the  plateau  beyond  to  a  point  about 
midway  across  the  peninsula.  They  are  about  equal  to  the 
Telugus  in  number.  Going  on  northward  about  two  hun- 
dred miles  from  Bombay  we  reach  the  Gujarati  people,  where 
10,000,000  of  a  new  and  entirely  distinct  race  are  found. 
Passing  on  to  the  northwest,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Indus  we 
find  the  Sindhi  people,  numbering  about  2,500,000.  Then 
proceeding  up  the  Indus  to  the  country  of  the  "Five  Rivers," 
called  the  Punjab — that  part  of  India  known  to  Alexander — we 
find  16,000,000  people  speaking  the  Punjabi  language.  East 
of  this  region,  and  far  down  the  valley  of  the  Ganges  and 
its  tributaries,  we  find  95,000,000  Hindustani-speaking  peo- 
ple, while  on  the  plains  and  delta  of  the  lower  Ganges  we 
find  45,000,000  Bengalis.  Southwest  of  these,  and  occupy- 
ing the  coast  region  between  the  Bengalis  and  the  Telugus, 
are  the  Uriyas,  numbering  about  8,000,000  souls. 

It  is  proper  to  remark  that  these  numbers  can  only  be 
given  approximately.  The  successive  census  reports  differ 
more  or  less,  according  to  the  rules  laid  down  by  those  in 
charge  of  the  census  operations.  Besides,  it  is  always  diffi- 
cult to  attain  anything  like  accuracy  in  a  region  where  three 
or  four  different  languages  are  spoken  side  by  side,  and  are 
constantly  intermingling  at  some  points,  and  overflowing  at 
others,  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  extremely  difficult  to 
decide  what  language  the  people  of  a  given  village  speak. 

In  addition  to  these  eleven  nations,  there  are  many  other 
tribes  and  clans,  some  of  them  of  no  little  importance  to  the 
country,  but  most  of  them  living  in  remote  regions  and  exert- 
ing no  appreciable  influence  on  the  empire  at  large.  Among 


THE  PEOPLE.  31 

the  most  important  of  these  are  the  Parsees  of  Bombay  aud 
Surat.  These  enterprising  people  are  descendants  of  a  small 
colony  of  ancient  Persians  who  settled  at  Surat  some  centu- 
ries ago,  when  driven  out  of  Persia  by  Mohammedan  perse- 
cution. They  are  an  extremely  enterprising  and  aggressive 
race,  but  are  numerically  too  weak  to  exert  much  influence 
on  India. 

The  people  of  the  eleven  nationalities  enumerated  above 
speak  eleven  distinct  and  separate  tongues.  Of  these,  seven 
are  of  Aryan  and  four  of  Dravidian  extraction.  The  most  re- 
cent of  these  languages  is  probably  the  Bengali,  while  the 
Punjabi  and  Marathi  would  probably  come  next  in  order. 
The  well-known  Sikhs  of  the  Punjab,  and  the  Bengalis,  are 
probably  the  most  recent  people  who  have  appeared  in  In- 
dian history.  The  Hindus  of  Northern  India,  as  well  as  the 
Dravidians  of  the  South,  are  undoubtedly  a  very  ancient  peo- 
ple, many  of  them,  in  all  probability,  living  in  the  same  vil- 
lages in  which  their  ancestors  dwelt  twenty-five  centuries  ago. 

While  distinct  lines  of  demarkation  can  be  drawn  between 
the  various  nationalities  of  India,  yet,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  are  not  a  few  points  of  resemblance  which  seldom  fail 
to  attract  the  attention  of  tourists,  and  naturally  lead  to  the 
mistaken  notion  that  the  people  of  India  constitute  a  common 
nationality.  In  complexion  they  must  be  numbered  with  the 
dark  races,  although  many  of  them  are  very  fair.  In  North- 
ern India  descendants  of  Mohammedan  invaders  of  a  com- 
paratively recent  period  may  sometimes  be  seen  with  blue 
eyes  and  auburn  hair,  and  it  is  said  that  a  large  number  of 
comparatively  fair  women  have  always  been  found  among  the 
harems  of  India.  Many  of  the  most  exclusive  castes  of  the 
Brahmans  are  also  comparatively  very  fair,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  large  numbers  of  not  only  the  aborigines,  but  of  per- 
sons occupying  respectable  positions  in  society,  are  quite  as' 
dark  as  recently  imported  Africans  in  our  Southern  States. 
It  is  certain  from  references  found  in  the  most  ancient  hymns 
of  the  Yedas  that  the  Aryans,  when  they  first  invaded  India, 


32  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

were  as  white  as  modern  Europeans;  and  if  any  evidence 
were  needed  to  show  the  effect  of  climate  on  complexion,  at 
least  in  India,  it  can  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  descendants 
of  early  Jewish  settlers  are  now  nearly,  if  not  quite,  as  dark 
as  the  average  Indians  among  whom  they  live. 

The  constitution  of  society  throughout  India  has  many 
features  which  are  alike  peculiar  to  all  the  different  nations 
and  tribes.  Some  of  these  are  owing  to  peculiar  religious 
usages,  while  others  have  been  handed  down  from  remote 
ages,  apparently  unchanged  amid  all  the  great  revolutions 
through  which  the  people  of  India  have  passed.  The  family 
system  is  the  same  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  retains 
many  of  the  patriarchal  features  which  we  find  in  the  history 
of  Abraham  and  his  immediate  descendants.  The  joint  sys- 
tem prevails  almost  universally,  the  sons  remaining  under  the 
ancestral  roof,  or  at  least  in  a  building  immediately  adjoining, 
through  the  life-time  of  the  father,  who  retains  authority  over 
the  entire  household,  while  all  the  family  is  supported  out  of 
a  common  purse.  Child-marriage  has  prevailed  since  very 
early  times,  although  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  a  feature 
of  Aryan  society  at  the  time  the  more  ancient  Vedic  hymns 
were  composed.  Widowhood  is  also  everywhere  not  only  re- 
garded as  a  misfortune,  but  the  hapless  widow  is  obliged  to 
suffer  many  forms  of  penance  which,  in  a  stranger's  eyes, 
seem  very  much  like  cruel  persecution.  Among  all  the 
orthodox  castes,  with  the  exception  of  some  of  the  lower 
classes,  the  rule  of  perpetual  widowhood  is  rigidly  enforced ; 
and  when  it  is  remembered  that  children  are  often  legally 
married  when  but  a  few  years  old,  the  hardship  of  this  rule 
becomes  more  apparent.  A  little  girl  may  be  left  a  widow 
before  she  is  six  years  of  age;  but  if  so,  the  law  makes  no  ex- 
ception in  her  behalf.  She  is  treated  as  a  semi-outcast  all  the 
rest  of  her  days,  and  is  never  permitted  to  contract  a  legal 
marriage.  As  might  be  expected,  such  a  custom  is  equally 
blighting  to  the  happiness  and  the  morals  of  its  victims. 
Cremation  is  the  usual  method  of  disposing  of  the  bodies  of 


•THE  PEOPLE.  33 

the  dead,  although  to  this  also  there  are  some  exceptions,  as 
in  the  cases  of  some  classes  of  devotees,  and  persons  of  very 
low  standing,  or  outcasts. 

The  people  of  India,  like  the  Chinese,  are  extremely  con- 
servative, and  in  some  respects  do  not  seem  to  have  changed 
in  the  slightest  degree  during  the  past  three  thousand  years. 
All  manner  of  innovations  are  at  first  sight  rejected,  although 
the  immense  progress  which  has  been  made  in  the  country 
during  the  last  thirty  years  in  the  way  of  introducing  tele- 
graphs, railways,  machinery  of  all  kinds,  new  medicines,  and 
new  methods  of  medical  treatment,  with  the  rapid  spread 
of  education,  are  beginning  to  produce  a  marked  change  in 
this  respect,  at  least  among  the  more  intelligent  classes.  It 
must  not  be  supposed  for  a  moment,  as  it  too  often  is  sup- 
posed in  America,  that  India  is  not  a  civilized  country.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  has  a  civilization  which  is  at  least  as  an- 
cient as  the  time  of  Solomon,  and  which  probably  at  that 
early  period  placed  the  Eastern  Aryans  in  advance  of  any 
other  section  of  the  great  Indo-Germanic  family.  Never- 
theless, this  civilization  seems  to  have  become  petrified  at  a 
very  early  period,  and  has  changed  very  little  through  all 
the  centuries  since.  No  new  inventions  of  any  kind  are  ever 
made,  and  one  searches  in  vain  for  any  trace  of  progress  in 
agriculture  or  science,  or  in  the  methods  of  labor  adopted  by 
the  various  classes  of  artisans.  The  Patent  Office  at  Wash- 
ington contains  no  less  than  six  thousand  models  of  improved 
plows,  which  have  been  deposited  there  by  American  invent- 
ors. In  India,  on  the  other  hand,  the  peasant's  plow  is 
practically  the  same  implement  which  was  in  use  two  or  even 
three  thousand  years  ago.  The  same  remark  would  hold 
true,  no  doubt,  with  regard  to  the  people  of  China ;  and  in- 
asmuch as  we  do  not  find  men's  inventive  genius  alive  and 
awake  anywhere  except  in  Christian  lands,  it  may  be  as- 
sumed that  when  India  becomes  a  Christian  country  her 
people  will  no  longer  be  found  apparently  destitute  of  this 
valuable  gift.  For  the  present,  however,  the  tenacity  with 

3 


34  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSfA. 

which  they  cling  to  old  methods  of  labor  and  to  old  cus- 
toms of  every  kind,  stands  very  much  in  the  way  of  their 
improvement  and  progress,  and  forms  one  of  the  most  pow- 
erful barriers  which  meet  the  missionary  when  he  attempts 
that  most  difficult  of  all  tasks,  to  induce  people  to  change 
their  religion. 

As  a  people  the  Indians  are  very  poor.  Taking  the 
whole  empire  together,  they  might  be  divided  into  three 
classes.  In  the  first  place,  we  find  a  few  who  are  very  rich, 
and  who  live  in  a  style  corresponding  more  or  less  with  the 
popular  notions  entertained  in  Western  lands  of  the  "  In- 
dian nabob."  Next  after  these  we  find  a  larger  number  of 
persons  who  live  in  moderate  comfort,  but  who  in  England 
or  America  would  never  be  called  rich.  In  the  large  cities 
and  larger  country  towns,  many  of  the  tradesmen  would  be- 
long to  this  class,  and  also  owners  of  city  property,  or  per- 
sons more  or  less  directly  engaged  in  trade.  Scattered  all 
over  the  country,  also,  we  find  a  class  of  land-holders  who 
are  much  better  off  than  the  ordinary  peasants,  and  consti- 
tute, at  least  in  their  own  immediate  neighborhood  and  in 
their  own  humble  way,  an  inferior  class  of  country  gentry ; 
but  putting  all  these  classes  together,  the  number  is  very 
small  when  compared  with  the  multitudes  of  those  who  are 
poor.  The  cultivators  have  very  small  holdings,  not  only  in 
those  districts  where  they  directly  own  the  land  which  they 
cultivate,  but  also  in  those  provinces  where  they  rent  the  land 
from  landlords.  The  average  size  of  an  Indian  farm  has  been 
estimated  at  five  acres.  I  have  known,  however,  hard-work- 
ing men  to  cultivate  less  than  one  acre,  and  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  these  toiling  peasants  must  pay  a  high  rent, 
either  to  the  Government  or  to  their  landlords,  it  can  easily 
be  seen  that  the  ordinary  farmer  must  at  best  be  classed  among 
the  poor.  A  man  who  owns  five  acres  probably  has  a  yoke 
of  oxen  and  a  few  cows,  while  a  man  with  fifteen  or  twenty 
acres  occupies  a  very  good  position  in  his  ancestral  village, 
and  is  regarded  by  his  neighbors  as  a  very  prosperous  man. 


THE  PEOPLE.  35 

Those,  however,  who  cultivate  but  an  acre  or  a  half-acre 
usually  do  it  without  any  assistance  from  oxen  or  plow.  I 
have  known  such  a  man  to  cultivate  his  little  holding  with 
his  own  hands,  and  without  any  kind  of  implement  excepting 
a  small  tool  resembling  a  common  curved  pick. 
I  But  when  we  leave  these  comparatively  independent  cul- 
tivators, and  turn  to  the  great  mass  of  laborers,  including  not 
only  those  who  work  in  the  fields,  but  the  weavers,  shoe- 
makers, leather-dressers,  and  others  engaged  in  various 
forms  of  unskilled  labor,  we  find  a  condition  of  things  to 
which  only  one  term  can  be  applied,  and  that  is — poverty. 
Millions  belonging  to  these  lowest  classes  live  in  a  state  of 
wretchedness  and  poverty  which  it  is  almost  impossible  for 
a  person  who  has  never  been  out  of  America  to  realize. 
Even  the  ordinary  farmer  is  too  poor  to  eat  bread  made 
from  the  wheat  which  grows  in  his  own  little  fields.  He 
sells  his  wheat  because  it  commands  a  higher  price,  and  buys 
millet,  or  some  other  cheaper  kind  of  foodj  for  himself  and 
family.  The  people  generally  eat  but  two  meals  a  day,  but 
the  very  poor  are  not  always  able  to  indulge  in  so  much 
luxury.  When  in  America,  I  have  always  noticed  that  the 
people  seem  to  listen  in  utter  bewilderment  when  I  attempt 
to  tell  them  about  the  extreme  poverty  of  India.  It  is 
something  which  can  not  be  understood  until  it  is  seen,  and 
very  often  those  who  have  lived  in  the  country  for  many 
years  fail  to  comprehend  it.  In  most  parts  of  the  country, 
at  least  outside  the  large  cities  and  towns,  a  man  will  work 
^faithfully  for  wages  not  exceeding  five  or  six  cents  a  day, 
and  on  this  pitiful  sum  he  probably  has  to  support  a  wife 
and  from  two  to  six  children.  To  his  credit,  let  it  be  said, 
he  always  does  it  without  grumbling.  The  people  of  India, 
indeed,  are  among  the  most  patient  creatures  to  be  found  in 
the  world.  Dr.  Hunter,  who  has  only  recently  left  India, 
and  who  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  best  informed  authori- 
ties on  Indian  subjects,  affirms  that  there  are  more  than  forty 
millions  of  people  in  India  who  habitually  live  on  insuffi- 


36  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

cient  food.  I  should  be  inclined  to  put  the  number  much 
higher;  but  leaving  it  at  forty  millions,  it  is  a  startling  and 
indeed  awful  statement  to  make,  and  one  which  makes  us 
think  seriously  about  the  present  condition  of  our  race.  So 
far  as  my  own  observation  has  extended  in  ludia,  I  have 
been  led  to  believe  that  not  more  than  half  of  the  people 
ever  eat  to  repletion,  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  they  pro- 
vide two  meals  each  day  as  well  as  they  are  able,  and  con- 
tent themselves  with  such  food  as  they  can  procure,  whether 
it  be  absolutely  sufficient  or  not.  They  spend  very  little  in 
clothing,  and  literally  live  from  hand  to  mouth  the  whole 
year  round,  so  that  their  life  is  one  long  struggle  against 
absolute  want. 

The  moral  condition  of  the  people  of  India  is  a  subject 
which  would  call  for  a  longer  discussion  than  the  plan  of 
this  book  will  admit  of.  It  is  a  subject  full  of  anomalies 
and  contradictions,  and  one  which  can  only  be  understood 
by  persons  who  have  learned  how  to  recognize  all  the  vari- 
ous elements  which  enter  into  the  character  of  a  community 
or  a  nation.  Among  the  best  nations  of  the  world  hideous 
developments  of  evil  can  be  found  by  those  who  know  where 
to  look  for  them ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  among  the  least 
favored  nations  features  of  social  and  religious  life  may  be 
found  by  those  who  have  the  moral  discrimination  to  dis- 
cern them,  which  relieve,  to  some  extent,  the  blackness  of 
the  dark  picture  which  is  usually  drawn  when  an  attempt  is 
made  to  describe  the  moral  condition  of  a  non-Christian 
nation.  The  people  of  India  are  by  no  means  wholly  bad, 
and  the  terms  "  pagan  "  and  "  heathen,"  at  least  in  the  sense 
in  which  they  are  popularly  used  in  Western  lands,  can 
hardly  be  applied  to  them  with  any  justice.  Intelligent  mis- 
sionaries never  use  these  terms  in  India,  and  it  is  one  of 
the  signs  of  the  times  that  the  more  advanced  Indians  them- 
selves strenuously  object  to  being  called  heathen.  As  a  peo- 
ple, they  are  possessed  of  many  virtues — domestic,  social, 
and,  I  will  add,  religious.  They  are  very  true  to  their 


THE  PEOPLE.  37 

obligations  to  relatives ;  and,  in  this  respect,  could  teach 
Christian  nations  some  valuable  lessons.  They  are  a  relig- 
ious people ;  and,  when  converted,  make  excellent  Chris- 
tians. They  are  also  strong  in  their  personal  attachments, 
naturally  affectionate,  and  well  able  to  appreciate  kindness. 
Nevertheless,  it  must  be  admitted,  even  by  those  who  wish 
to  speak  as  kindly  of  them  as  possible,  that  they  bear  many 
of  the  marks  which  always  accompany  a  religion  which  de- 
nies the  immediate  authority  of  God,  or  at  least  severs  the 
individual  from  a  personal  allegiance  to  God  as  the  Supreme 
Ruler.  After  conceding  all  that  can  possibly  be  granted, 
some  very  ugly  facts  remain,  which  can  not  be  hidden  out  of 
sight.  In  a  country  where  polygamy  is  not  only  tolerated, 
but  where  it  has  been  unchallenged  for  many  centuries; 
where  child-marriage  is  not  only  the  rule,  but  where  nearly 
all  classes  unite  in  wrarrnly  defending  it ;  where  widow  re- 
marriage is  forbidden  ;  where  a  mythology  full  of  unclean 
traditions,  and  an  idolatry  with  many  images  of  unclean  dei- 
ties meet  one  everywhere, — it  ought  not  to  surprise  any  one 
to  find  indications  of  a  low  moral  tone,  such  as  it  is  difficult 
to  realize  in  a  Christian  land.  It  is  not  very  long  since  the 
horrible  custom  of  burning  widows  with  their  husbands' 
corpses  was  abolished ;  and  we  have  only  to  remember  that 
when  that  great  reform  was  enacted  it  met  with  fierce  oppo- 
sition from  the  leaders  of  the  society  of  that  day,  to  realize 
to  what  an  extent  the  conscience  of  the  country  had  become 
debased  by  the  false  religious  system  in  which  the  people 
had  been  educated.  Even  less  than  twenty  years  ago,  when 
one  of  the  most  prominent  of  Hindu  statesmen,  Sir  Jung 
Bahadur,  the  prime  minister  of  Nepal,  a  statesman  who  had 
been  knighted  by  the  Queen, — when  this  well-known  man 
died,  inasmuch  as  his  death  occurred  within  territory  over 
which  the  Indian  Government  had  no  jurisdiction,  four  of 
his  widows  were  burned  with  his  corpse  on  his  funeral  pyre. 
This  one  event  shows  what  the  spirit  of  Hinduism  still  is,  if 
it  only  were  at  liberty  to  assert  itself.  Then,  too,  it  is  only  a 


38  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

few  years  since  the  horrible  custom  of  hook-swinging  was 
abolished  in  Calcutta  itself.  On  a  certain  festival-day 
wretched  men,  sometimes  stupefied  with  drugs,  and  some- 
times with  the  free  use  of  their  faculties,  would  submit  to 
have  steel  hooks  inserted  in  the  muscles  of  their  backs,  by 
which  they  were  suspended  from  beams  which  were  made  to 
swing  round  and  round  in  such  a  way  as  to  exhibit  the  suffer- 
ing creatures  to  the  enthusiastic  multitude  below.  It  is  not 
pleasant  to  dwell  on  such  scenes,  and  I  should  be  very  sorry 
to  remind  any  Hindu  here  in  India  of  such  an  event,  or  to 
suggest  that  it  was  the  natural  fruit  of  his  religious  system ;  but 
it  ought  to  be  mentioned  as  an  indication  of  the  actual  nature 
of  idol- worship  in  the  best  form  in  which  our  world  has  seen  it 
during  the  past  two  thousand  years. 

One  other  mark  of  a  low  moral  standard  has  very  recently 
been  brought  before  the  Indian  public  in  a  way  which  has  at- 
tracted attention  as  few  public  events  have  recently  done.  I 
have  spoken  of  the  universal  custom  of  child-marriage.  The 
legal  marriage  takes  place  oftentimes  at  a  very  early  age,  but 
the  little  bride  remains  with  her  parents  till  she  is  older  before 
going  to  live  with  her  husband.  Sometimes  the  husband  is  also 
a  child  at  the  time  of  the  marriage;  but  very  frequently  a  man 
of  years,  sometimes  even  an  old  man,  will  marry  one  of  these 
little  child-brides  and  take  her  to  his  own  house  at  a  very 
early  age,  say  from  ten  to  twelve  or  thirteen  years.  This 
outrageous  custom  had  long  been  known ;  but  with  the 
strange  indifference  which  all  people  so  often  manifest  to 
abuses  which  have  been  long  established,  little  attention  was 
called  to  it  until  last  year,  when  a  horrible  death  of  a  little 
child-wife  in  Calcutta,  and  the  trial  and  conviction  of  her 
husband,  produced  a  storm  of  indignation,  not  only  among 
Europeans,  but  among  the  more  intelligent  classes  of  the  In- 
dians themselves.  A  bill  was  introduced  into  the  Governor- 
General's  Council  to  fix  the  age  of  consent  on  the  part  of 
wives  at  twelve  years,  and,  incredible  as  it  may  appear,  a 
violent  opposition  was  raised  throughout  all  India  to  this 


THE  PEOPLE.  39 

very  slight  advance  in  the  direction  of  reform.  If  the  Gov- 
ernment had  fixed  the  age  at  fourteen  years  it  would  have 
made  little  difference,  and  could  not  have  excited  greater 
opposition.  The  reader  in  America  will  say  at  once  that 
it  ought  to  have  been  sixteen  years,  and  perhaps  denounce 
the  Indian  Government  for  its  timidity;  but  unfortunate!}' 
the  Americans  can  not  take  up  the  first  stone  in  this  case, 
owing  to  the  defective  laws  in  some  of  their  States.  A  great 
indignation  meeting  was  called  to  protest  against  this  law  in 
Calcutta,  and  no  less  than  fifty  thousand  persons  turned  out  in 
the  park  to  take  part  in  the  proceedings.  The  mere  men- 
tion of  this  fact  is  sufficient  to  show  that  a  non-Christian 
country  has  a  conscience  that  is  neither  quick  nor  tender. 

In  no  part  of  India  can  it  be  said  that  the  people  are  noted 
for  truthfulness;  and  I  fear  it  must  be  admitted  that,  taking 
them  generally,  they  rank  in  morals  about  with  the  Chinese 
and  other  non-Christian  nations.  When  it  is  remembered  that 
the  most  of  them  are  very  poor,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to 
add  that  they  have  the  vices  which  very  poor  people  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  are  always  found  to  possess.  They  are 
not  cruel,  and  are  seldom  violent.  The  brutality  so  often 
exhibited  by  the  vicious  classes  in  England  and  America, 
especially  in  connection  with  intemperate  habits,  is  some- 
thing which  the  Indian  finds  very  difficult  to  understand; 
and  the  too  frequent  spectacle  of  a  drunken,  brutal  Euro- 
pean knocking  down  and  kicking  every  poor  creature  who 
stirs  up  his  wrath,  has  had  the  effect  of  creating  a  wide- 
spread impression  in  India  that  the  people  of  Europe  are 
naturally  much  more  wicked  than  those  of  India.  Crimes 
of  violence  are  very  much  less  frequent  in  India  than  might 
be  supposed ;  and  yet,  as  remarked  above,  it  must  be  always 
remembered  that  strange  contradictions  can  be  found  to 
nearly  every  one  of  these  statements.  I  myself  once  lived 
in  a  village  a  few  weeks,  during  which  time  I  incidentally 
discovered  a  recent  murder,  and  became  almost  an  eye-wit- 
ness of  a  gross  crime  of  violence  in  that  one  little  commu- 


40  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

nity.  It  would  have  been  very  easy  to  assume  that  every 
village  in  India  was  of  the  same  kind,  which  would  have 
been  doing  great  injustice  to  the  people.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  recent  home  paper  announces  more  than  a  dozen  murders  in 
the  city  of  New  York  and  vicinity  in  a  single  Sunday,  and 
if  we  are  to  take  this  as  an  illustrative  text,  it  would  be  easy 
to  show  a  state  of  morals  in  America  compared  with  which 
nothing  in  the  heathen  world  would  be  so  startling.  Mak- 
ing allowance  for  all  extreme  statements  and  exceptional 
events,  it  will,  perhaps,  suffice  to  say  that  the  moral  condi- 
tion of  the  people  of  India  is  very  unsatisfactory,  while 
some  of  its  features  are  particularly  deplorable. 

Mentally,  if  not  physically,  the  people  compare  very  favor- 
ably with  those  of  Europe.  The  average  physique  of  a  laboring 
man  is  very  much  below  that  of  an  English  laborer,  but  in 
many  cases  would  compare  favorably  with  the  lower  class  of 
Italians.  Mentally,  however,  the  Indian  can  hold  his  own  with 
people  of  any  other  part  of  the  world.  He  has  a  very  re- 
tentive memory,  and  hence,  when  put  in  competition  with 
English  children,  a  native  boy  in  an  Indian  school  will  very 
often  come  out  ahead.  They  can  memorize  most  success- 
fully. In  fact,  this  one  faculty  has  been  developed  through 
so  many  long  generations  that  it  may  be  said  to  constitute 
the  sum  and  substance  of  an  Indian  education,  at  least  ac- 
cording to  the  traditional  view.  They  do  not  succeed  so  well, 
however,  in  generalization,  and  hence  are  not  always  able  to 
make  so  much  use  of  an  education  when  they  have  received  it 
as  those  who  have  received  a  more  practical  drill  in  other 
lands.  As  a  curious  illustration  of  this  power  of  memory,  I 
may  mention  an  incident  which  occurred  in  the  Calcutta 
Medical  College  not  many  years  ago.  The  examination  papers 
of  a  Bengali  student  were  found  to  contain  more  than  a  page 
taken  word  for  word  from  one  of  the  text-books  of  the  med- 
ical course  which  had  been  studied.  It  was  assumed  at  once 
that  the  student  had  been  guilty  of  dishonestly  copying  from 
a  book  which  in  some  way  had  come  within  his  reach.  When 


THE  PEOPLE.  41 

brought  before  the  authorities  for  trial  he  proposed  to  write 
an  answer  to  any  other  question  that  might  be  given  him,  in 
the  language  of  the  same  text-book,  and  when  the  book  was 
turned  over  at  random  and  a  question  suggested,  he  at  once 
wrote  a  correct  reply  to  it,  written  wholly  from  memory,  but 
literally  following  the  copy  without  the  omission  of  a  single 
word.  The  principal  of  the  college,  when  telling  me  this  as 
an  illustration  of  the  wonderful  power  of  memory  which  some 
of  the  young  men  possess,  added  the  remark:  "He  can  an- 
swer any  question  I  ask  him  about  any  of  the  books  which  I 
have  put  into  his  hands,  and  yet  I  should  be  very  sorry  to 
trust  my  life  to  him  if  I  were  dangerously  ill.  He  can  col- 
lect and  retain  knowledge,  but  can  not  apply  it."  This  re- 
mark, however,  will  not  apply  to  the  people  generally.  The 
colleges  of  India  are  producing  some  men  of  very  great  abil- 
ity, and  it  may  be  safely  assumed  that  in  the  years  to  come 
they  will  be  able  to  seize  and  hold  a  worthy  place  in  the 
great  arena  of  nations  in  which  they  must  be  ultimately  called 
to  contend. 


Ct>apber  III. 
THE  EMPIRE  OF  INDIA. 

T  NDIA  is  not  a  conquered  country  held  in  subjection  by  a 
1  distant  European  power,  as  Mexico  was  once  held  by 
Spain,  or  as  Cochin  China  is  held  by  France  at  the  present 
day,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  great  empire  \vith  a  pow- 
erful Government  of  its  own.  With  a  population  greater 
than  that  of  the  five  "  great  powers  "  of  Europe  put  together, 
with  a  revenue  exceeding  $350,000,000,  with  a  foreign  com- 
merce worth  $768,000,000  annually,  with  a  standing  army 
230,000  strong,  more  than  two-thirds  of  which  is  composed 
of  native  soldiers,  with  a  drilled  police  force  of  more  than 
150,000  men,  with  a  code  of  laws  in  many  respects  superior 
to  those  found  on  the  statute-books  of  European  countries, 
and  with  courts  of  justice  as  impartial  and  as  faithfully  ad- 
ministered as  any  to  be  found  in  the  world,  India  may  well 
claim  a  place  among  the  great  empires  of  the  present  era. 

In  his  work  on  the  "  Expansion  of  England,"  Professor 
Seeley,  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  called  attention  in  a 
very  striking  paragraph  to  the  common  mistake  made  by 
persons  in  Europe  in  assuming  that  India  had  ever  been  con- 
quered by  the  English,  or  that  it  was  held  in  subjection  by 
the  British  Government  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  word.  In 
all  history  no  more  extraordinary  movement  has  ever  been 
witnessed  than  the  organization  and  development  of  the  great 
power  now  known  as  the  Empire  of  India.  Not  only  were 
the  directors  of  the  old  East  India  Company  utterly  hostile 
to  the  idea  of  establishing  any  semblance  of  political  power 
in  India,  but  the  first  agents  of  the  Company,  if  not  equally 
opposed  to  such  a  project,  would  have  regarded  it  as  utterly 
42 


THE  EMPIRE.  43 

impracticable  had  it  been  suggested  to  them.  When  the  En- 
glish leaders  in  India  first  began  to  make  their  conquests  they 
had  no  thought  of  subjugating  any  Asiatic  power,  but  were 
really  animated  by  hostile  feelings  towards  the  representa- 
tives of  other  European  nations  who  had  settled  near  them 
and  were  commercially  their  rivals.  It  was  this  jealousy 
among  Europeans,  and  not  any  designs  upon  the  natives  of 
India,  which  first  provoked  the  wars  during  which  the  first 
foundation  of  English  power  was  laid.  Clive,  Warren  Hast- 
ings, and  the  other  great  leaders  of  the  last  century,  were  men 
who  built  more  wisely  than  they  knew.  They  were  abso- 
lutely incapable  of  foreseeing  to  what  gigantic  proportions 
the  political  fabric  which  they  hastily  began  to  build  would 
afterwards  attain.  The  people  of  India  were  successively 
subjugated,  not  by  foreigners,  but  for  the  most  part  by  their 
own  countrymen,  or  at  least  by  Indians  of  neighboring  na- 
tionalities. The  Indian  Empire,  as  we  see  it  to-day,  is  not 
the  creation  of  the  English  nation,  or  of  the  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment which  sits  in  London,  but  is  rather  an  empire  built 
up  by  a  few  Englishmen  in  India.  Their  great  work  was 
begun  without  design,  and  from  first  to  last  carried  on  as  if 
by  the  power  of  an  invisible  destiny,  rather  than  by  the  de- 
liberate purpose  of  the  empire-builders.  Again  and  again 
attempts  were  made  to  stay  the  march  of  events,  and  put 
limits  to  the  expansion  of  the  empire,  but  all  in  vain.  Even 
in  very  recent  years  the  policy  has  been  solemnly  proclaimed 
of  making  no  more  annexations,  only  to  be  followed  by  new 
accessions  of  territory. 

How  are  we  to  explain  this  extraordinary  phenomenon 
in  history?  If  the  founders  and  builders  of  the  Indian  Em- 
pire have  not  been  crafty,  ambitious,  and  unscrupulous  men, 
if  their  work  has  not  been  a  work  of  deliberate  design,  how 
are  we  to  explain  their  extraordinary  success?  The  believer 
in  Providence  will  say  that  God  had,  and  still  has,  great 
and  gracious  designs  in  connection  with  this  and  all  other 
great  political  changes,  and  that  time  will  reveal  His  pur- 


44  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

poses;  but  meanwhile,  if  we  look  carefully  at  the  factors  in- 
volved, we  may  see  that  the  great  result  was  only  what 
might  have  been  anticipated.  The  traditions  and  political 
institutions  of  England,  the  ideas  which  prevailed,  the  very 
character  of  the  people,  made  it  inevitable  that  a  body  of 
determined  Englishmen,  set  down  alone  on  a  distant  shore, 
and  suddenly  confronted  with  the  most  formidable  responsi- 
bilities, should  have  acted  precisely  as  the  founders  of  the 
Indian  Empire  did  act.  The  English  as  a  race  have  a  gen- 
ius for  organization,  and  they  could  not  have  remained  in 
India  and  acted  otherwise  than  as  they  have  acted.  The 
times  were  ripe  for  their  coming,  and  they  built  with  the 
materials  which  they  found  ready  to  their  hands.  They 
never  tried  to  conquer  India,  but  they  found  warring  nations 
and  tribes,  discordant  elements  of  every  kind,  all  India  toss- 
ing like  a  troubled  and  stormy  sea,  and  they  proceeded  to 
lay  the  hand  of  authority  on  one  hostile  power  after  another, 
until  now  at  last  all  India  rests  in  peace,  and  many  mill- 
ions of  her  middle-aged  people  have  never  seen  a  regiment 
of  troops  or  perhaps  even  a  single  soldier. 

It  may  be  said  that  frequent  acts  of  injustice  have  marked 
the  growth  of  the  Indian  Empire,  that  very  often  the  inno- 
cent have  suffered  cruelly,  and  that  in  many  cases  a  foreign 
domination  has  been  set  up  over  very  unwilling  subjects. 
This  and  much  more  must  be  granted;  but  that  is  but  another 
way  of  saying  that  the  empire  has  been  built  up  in  the  midst 
of  wars  and  Oriental  rivalries.  The  English  leaders  in  India 
have  not  all  been  saintly  men,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  they 
have  not  been  worse  than  men  of  their  class  in  other  parts  of 
the  world.  Taking  them  as  a  whole,  and  viewing  them  as 
they  have  appeared  during  the  past  century,  they  do  not  suffer 
by  comparison  with  any  other  body  of  Englishmen  in  official 
life.  England  herself  has  been  built  up  into  her  present  great- 
ness, not  without  bloodshed,  and  amid  scenes  of  cruelty  and 
injustice  such  as  no  historian  finds  pleasure  in  portraying. 
The  history  of  India  has  many  a  page  which  affords  painful 


THE  EMPIRE.  45 

reading  to  every  Christian ;  but  when  we  take  into  consider- 
ation all  the  circumstances  which  surrounded  the  actors, 
whether  foreigners  or  Indians,  the  marvel  is  that  so  little  in- 
justice has  marked  the  growth  and  progress  of  this  great 
Eastern  empire. 

The  Government  of  the  Indian  Empire  is  administered 
by  a  Governor-General,  or,  as  he  is  now  more  commonly 
called,  a  Viceroy,  who  is  assisted  by  a  Council  of  six  mem- 
bers. The  Viceroy  is  appointed  by  the  Queen,  and  is  usually 
chosen  from  the  ranks  of  the  nobility.  Sir  John  Lawrence, 
afterwards  Lord  Lawrence,  is  the  only  instance  during  the 
present  century  in  which  an  Indian  civilian  has  been  chosen 
for  this  high  office.  The  members  of  the  Council  are  in 
reality  members  of  the  Viceroy's  Cabinet,  and  each  one  is  a 
minister  in  charge  of  a  department  of  the  Government.  Un- 
like the  American  Cabinet,  these  members  of  Council  are  not 
secretaries,  but  a  secretary  is  connected  with  the  department 
of  each,  without,  however,  having  any  voice  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Government.  The  six  departments  over  each 
of  which  a  member  of  Council  is  placed,  are  Finance  and 
Commerce,  Home,  Military,  Public  Works,  Legislative,  and 
Revenue  and  Agriculture.  The  Secretary  attached  to  each 
one  of  these  departments  holds  a  position  somewhat  anal- 
ogous to  that  of  an  Under-Secretary  of  the  Government  in 
England.  He  prepares  all  the  business  of  his  department, 
and  puts  it  before  the  Governor-General  or  the  member  of 
Council  in  charge  of  his  department,  and  is  permitted  to 
write  an  opinion ;  but  beyond  this  he  has  no  authority 
whatever.  The  members  of  the  Viceroy's  Council  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  Crown,  and  usually  hold  their  offices  for  five 
years.  The  Viceroy  holds  his  office  for  the  same  term,  but 
frequently,  in  recent  years,  Indian  Viceroys  have  resigned 
before  serving  their  full  term.  Of  the  six  members  of 
Council,  three  must  have  served  in  India  at  least  ten  years, 
and  one  of  these  must  be  a  military  officer.  The  acts  of 
the  Viceroy  are  officially  termed  Orders  of  the  Governor-Gen- 


46  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

eral  in  Council ;  but  in  addition  to  his  Executive  Council 
there  is  what  is  commonly  called  the  Legislative  Council 
of  India.  This  is  composed  of  the  Executive  Council,  with 
not  less  than  six  or  more  than  twelve  additional  members, 
nominated  by  the  Viceroy.  Of  these,  one-half  must  be  per- 
sons not  holding  offices  under  Government;  and  of  these 
again,  some  are  always  natives  of  India.  Strictly  speaking, 
there  is  but  one  Council,  which  sometimes  meets  for  exec- 
utive and  sometimes  for  legislative  purposes;  and  in  the 
latter  capacity  it  has  a  larger  membership  than  in  the  former. 
It  will  be  noticed  that  the  official  element  in  the  Council 
has  such  a  preponderance  that  there  is  no  possibility  of  the 
Government  ever  being  left  in  the  minority;  and  even  if 
such  a  contingency  were  to  occur,  the  Viceroy  has  an  ab- 
solute veto  upon  all  that  is  done.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
Council,  whether  executive  or  legislative,  is  an  advisory 
body  rather  than  one  invested  with  independent  powers. 
The  meetings  of  the  Legislative  Council  are  always  open  to 
the  public,  but  do  not  usually  attract  much  interest. 

The  Supreme  Government  has  its  seat  nominally  at  Cal- 
cutta, but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  spends  only  two  or  three 
months  in  that  capital.  Early  in  April  the  Viceroy,  with  all 
the  members  of  his  Council,  secretaries  of  departments,  goes 
up  to  Simla,  a  station  in  Northern  India,  on  the  spurs  of  the 
Himalayas,  and  remains  there  till  the  middle  or  last  of  October. 
Simla  thus  becomes  not  only  the  summer  capital  of  India,  but  in 
reality  is  much  more  the  real  capital  than  Calcutta.  When  the 
Viceroy  sets  out  on  his  return  to  Calcutta,  he  nearly  always 
turns  out  of  his  way  to  pay  visits  to  important  places  in  India ; 
and  in  this  way  it  frequently  happens  that  much  of  the  cold 
season  is  occupied,  so  that  Calcutta  sees  very  little  of  the 
Queen's  representative. 

The  whole  Empire  of  India  is  unequally  subdivided  into 
provinces  and  districts,  some  of  them  almost  of  imperial  ex- 
tent, while  others  are  very  small.  At  first,  under  the  old 
East  India  Company,  there  were  three  Governors — one  at 


THE  EMPIRE.  47 

Calcutta,  one  at  Madras,  and  a  third  at  Bombay.  One  of 
these  at  an  early  day  was  made  Governor-General,  and  as  the 
empire  extended  its  area  from  time  to  time,  additional  prov- 
inces have  been  set  apart  under  Lieutenant-Governors  in 
Bengal,  the  Northwest  Provinces,  and  the  Punjab.  The  orig- 
inal title  of  Governor  has  not  been  taken  away  from  the 
temporary  rulers  of  Madras  and  Bombay,  and  a  Legislative 
Council,  similar  to  the  one  attached  to  the  Supreme  Govern- 
ment, is  allowed  to  each  of  these  officials.  These  two  Gov- 
ernors are  also  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  consequently 
take  a  little  higher  rank  than  the  Lieutenant-Goveruors,  al- 
though the  latter  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  intrusted  with 
greater  responsibilities,  and,  perhaps  it  might  be  added,  are 
usually  abler  men,  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  are  chosen 
directly  from  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  and  are  not  untried 
men  sent  out  from  England.  The  Governor  of  Madras  rules 
over  35,500,000  subjects,  the  Governor  of  Bombay  over  18,- 
800,000,  while  the  Lieuteuant-Governor  of  the  Northwest 
Provinces  has  nearly  47,000,000  under  his  jurisdiction,  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Punjab  20,800,000,  and  the  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  of  Bengal  very  nearly  71,000,000  within  the 
limits  of  his  province.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  while  the 
Governor  of  Bombay  outranks  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of 
Bengal  in  his  official  standing,  his  responsibility  is  trifling 
when  compared  with  that  of  the  latter.  Next  to  these  Gov- 
ernorships and  Lieutenant-Governorships,  another  class  of 
subordinate  rulers,  called  Chief  Commissioners,  is  found. 
There  are  at  present  three  of  these  in  India,  one  in  charge  of 
a  large  district  in  Central  India,  known  politically  as  the 
Central  Provinces,  with  a  population  of  10,761,000 ;  another 
in  charge  of  Assam,  with  5,400,000  people  under  him ;  and 
another  in  the  more  important  post  of  Chief  Commissioner 
of  Burma,  with  a  population  of  about  7,500,000  under  him. 
In  addition  to  these,  there  are  three  Commissioners  in  charge 
of  small  and  unimportant  districts,  which,  for  special  reasons, 
Lave  never  been  merged  into  the  larger  provinces.  A  Chief 


48  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

Commissioner  does  not  differ  much  from  a  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, excepting  in  official  rank  and  the  amount  of  salary. 

Going  on  down  the  scale,  the  next  subdivision  which  we 
find  is  the  district.  The  whole  of  India  is  divided  into  235 
districts.  A  number  of  these  are  usually  grouped  together, 
with  a  Commissioner  appointed  as  a  kind  of  general  super- 
visor over  them;  but  -in  each  district  an  official,  known 
in  different  parts  of  the  country  by  the  titles  of  Collector, 
Senior  Magistrate,  or  Deputy  Commissioner,  is  placed  in 
charge,  and  for  all  practical  purposes  is  the  immediate 
ruler  of  the  district.  This  official,  as  has  been  often  pointed 
out,  is  the  real  administrator  of  the  Government.  He  is,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  within  his  own  little  realm,  very  much  what 
the  ancient  Raja  was  to  the  people ;  and  although  the  District 
Judge  nominally  holds  a  higher  rank  and  draws  a  higher  sal- 
ary, he  is  always  a  person  of  much  less  official  importance  to 
the  people  than  the  district  officer.  The  235  officials  who 
have  charge  of  these  districts  are  hard-working  and,  as  a 
body,  able  men ;  and  upon  them,  perhaps  more  than  upon 
any  others,  depend  the  welfare  of  the  people  and  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  the  empire.  Their  jurisdiction  varies  -in 
different  parts  of  the  country.  In  one  or  two  cases  a  dis- 
trict officer  rules  over  a  territory  14,000  square  miles  in 
extent,  while  others  have  less  than  1,000  within  their  juris- 
diction. Some  of  these  districts  contain  a  population  of  not 
more  than  250,000,  while  others  rise  as  high  as  3,000,000. 
The  general  average  of  the  population  of  each  district 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  empire  is  about  800,000.  It  will 
thus  be  seen  that  the  district  officer  is  an  official  upon  whom 
more  responsibility  rests  than  upon  the  average  American 
Governor.  The  Governor  of  an  ordinary  American  State 
has,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  but  little  real  responsibility,  whereas 
the  administrator  of  an  Indian  district  holds  nearly  all  the 
interests  of  the  people  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  and,  in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  must  be  a  power  for  good  or  evil  through- 
out the  whole  of  his  administration. 


THE  EMPIRE.  49 

Among  the  many  mistakes  which  Europeans  and  Amer- 
icans make  in  thinking  of  India  is  to  assume  that  it  is  an 
uncivilized  country,  without  the  benefits  of  a  well-recog- 
nized code  of  laws.  Both  the  Hindus  and  Mohammedans 
have  always  given  much  attention  to  their  laws,  and  when 
the  English  took  over  the  provinces,  one  after  another,  they 
followed  the  invariable  custom  of  leaving  the  people  in  the 
undisturbed  exercise  of  all  their  religious,  domestic,  and 
social  customs,  including  obedience  to  their  respective  legal 
codes.  This  wise  tolerance,  however,  can  only  be  allowed 
within  certain  limits.  The  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  are 
alike  undisturbed  iu  the  laws  of  inheritance,  religion,  mar- 
riage and  divorce,  and  social  regulations  generally.  But 
wherever  any  question  arises  which  affects  the  followers  of 
all  religions  alike,  it  is  necessary  to  have  a  common  code 
to  which  there  can  be  an  equal  appeal  from  all  parties. 
Hence  the  Indian  Government,  at  an  early  period,  began  to 
give  attention  to  the  subject  of  providing  a  good  code  of 
laws  for  the  empire;  and  in  1834  no  less  a  man  than  Lord 
Macaulay  was  sent  out  to  India  as  legal  member  of  the  Gov- 
ernor-General's Council,  for  the  express  purpose  of  framing 
a  penal  code  for  the  use  of  the  Government  of  India.  He 
did  his  work  well,  although  many  years  passed  before  the 
code  which  was  prepared  by  him  was  formally  sanctioned 
and  made  applicable  to  all  India.  For  twenty-two  years  it 
was  neglected  or  postponed  from  time  to  time;  but  at  last, 
in  1860,  after  successive  revisions  by  able  men,  it  became 
law,  and  in  1861  it  was  followed  by  a  code  of  criminal  pro-, 
cedure.  Sir  James  Stephen,  well  known  as  one  of  the  ablest 
writers  on  legal  subjects  in  England,  has  pronounced  this 
code  to  be  "  by  far  the  best  system  of  criminal  law  in  the 
world."  The  same  writer  adds  that  "  it  is  practically  impos- 
sible to  misunderstand  the  penal  code ;  no  obscurity  or  am- 
biguity worth  speaking  of  has  been  discovered  in  it."  It 
has  been  said  that  a  few  generations  hence,  of  all  his  remark- 
able writings,  this  code  of  laws  will  be  accepted  as  the  most 

4 


50  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

enduring  monument  to  the  fame  of  Lord  Macaulay.  Since 
1860  the  Legislative  Council  of  India  has,  from  time  to  time, 
enacted  many  wise  laws,  as  necessity  has  seemed  to  call  for 
them ;  and  recently  it  has  been  said  by  Sir  Henry  Maine 
that  "  British  India  is  in  possession  of  a  set  of  codes  which 
approach  the  highest  standard  of  excellence  which  this  species 
of  legislation  has  reached.  In  form,  intelligibility,  and  com- 
prehensiveness, the  Indian  code  stands  against  all  compe- 
tition." 

The  laws  of  India  are  administered  by  courts  of  justice, 
perhaps  as  impartial,  if  not  as  able,  as  any  to  be  found  in 
England  or  America.  At  Bombay,  Madras,  Calcutta,  and 
Allahabad,  High  Courts  have  been  established,  to  which  ap- 
peals can  be  made  from  subordinate  judges,  magistrates,  or 
other  judicial  officers.  These  courts  have  also  the  power  of 
ordering  the  proceedings  of  any  subordinate  court  to  be  sent 
up  for  revision — a  rule  which  is  not  infrequently  acted  upon, 
and  which  exerts  a  most  healthful  influence  upon  all  the 
magistrates  of  the  country.  It  would  be  too  much  to  say 
that  all  the  petty  magistrates  of  India  are  above  suspicion ; 
but  charges  of  bribery  against  judges  and  all  magistrates  in  high 
position  are  very  seldom  heard  or  even  thought  of.  This  re- 
mark applies  to  Indian  judges  and  magistrates  quite  as  much 
as  to  Europeans.  A  few  years  ago,  when  a  fierce  feeling  of 
race  antagonism  had  been  stirred  up,  owing  to  an  issue  being 
unfortunately  put  before  the  public  as  to  whether  Europeans 
should  be  tried  by  native  magistrates,  many  writers,  heated 
by  the  controversy  of  the  hour,  made  grave  charges  against 
the  probity  of  native  magistrates ;  but  I  think,  in  a  cooler 
moment,  every  candid  European  in  India  will  be  ready  to 
admit  that  the  average  Indian  magistrate  is  a  man  of  integ- 
rity, who  tries  to  render  impartial  justice  to  those  who  come 
before  him. 

This  very  brief  sketch  of  the  Indian  Government  would 
be  incomplete  without  explaining  the  relation  of  the  Viceroy 
and  his  Council  to  the  British  Parliament  and  Crown.  That 


THE  EMPIRE.  51 

relation,  at  every  point,  is  theoretically  one  of  absolute  sub- 
ordination, although,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  not  only  the  Vice- 
roy, but  all  his  subordinates  down  to  the  district  officers, 
enjoy  a  measure  of  freedom  which  allows  them  to  administer 
their  affairs  with  all  proper  vigor.  In  the  days  of  the  East 
India  Company  the  Governor-General  was  subordinate  to 
the  Directors  of  the  Company  in  London ;  and  when  the  gov- 
ernment of  India  was  transferred  to  the  Crown,  an  arrange- 
ment somewhat  similar  to  this  was  made,  by  which  a  Secretary 
of  State  for  India  was  provided  for,  with  a  Council  of  fifteen 
members,  a  majority  of  whom  must  have  served  in  India  for 
ten  years.  This  Secretary  with  his  Council  in  Londan  cor- 
responds in  many,  respects  to  the  Viceroy  and  his  Council  in 
India.  The  Secretary,  like  the  Viceroy,  is  not  absolutely 
bound  by  the  action  of  his  Council,  but  he  wields  his  great 
power  very  moderately.  He  can  veto  any  measure  enacted 
by  the  Government  of  India,  and  can  also  take  the  initiative 
in  any  measure  which  the  Imperial  Government  might  wish 
the  Viceroy  to  carry  out.  It  may  seem,  at  first  glance,  that 
such  an  arrangement  would  seriously  hamper  and  weaken  the 
administration  in  India;  but  such  is  not  the  case.  In  recent 
years  it  has  happened  once  or  twice  that  the  Viceroy  found 
the  instructions  of  the  home  Government  such  as  he  did  not 
wish  to  execute;  but  differences  of  this  kind  only  arise  under 
peculiar  circumstances,  and  have  not  been  at  all  frequent. 
To  all  practical  intents  and  purposes  the  Viceroy  is  the  actual 
ruler  of  India. 

In  speaking  of  India,  a  distinction  must  always  be  drawn 
between  what  is  strictly  British  India  and  those  native  States 
which  still  retain  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  independence, 
and  are  ruled  by  their  own  hereditary  princes.  These  are 
usually  called  Feudatory  States,  and  number  "several  hun- 
dreds." It  would  seem  from  the  loose  way  in  which  all  writers 
speak  of  these  States  that  more  or  less  doubt  exists  in  the 
case  of  some  of  them  as  to  whether  they  should  be  classed 
under  British  rule,  or  regarded  as  in  some  vague  sense  inde~ 


52  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSTA. 

pendent.  Many  of  them  are  insignificant,  both  in  territorial 
extent  and  in  financial  and  political  importance.  Only  twelve 
contain  over  a  million  inhabitants.  The  largest  of  these  is 
Hyderabad,  with  a  population  of  about  ten  millions;  and  the 
next  Mysore,  with  a  population  of  four  millions.  The  name 
Feudatory,  has  come  into  common  use  in  recent  years,  and  de- 
fines pretty  accurately  their  relation  to  the  Supreme  Govern- 
ment of  India.  The  only  native  State  within  the  territorial 
limits  of  India  proper,  which  is  in  any  real  sense  independent, 
is  Nepal,  a  large  kingdom  occupying  a  part  of  the  Himalayas, 
with  some  of  the  adjacent  lowlands,  east  of  Oudh  and  North- 
ern Bengal.  For  some  reason  the  Indian  Government  has 
made  a  special  concession  to  this  native  power,  which,  how- 
ever, has  always  maintained  a  semi-Chinese  exclusiveness; 
and  although  it  is  certain  that  no  ruler  of  Nepal  would  be  al- 
lowed to  disturb  the  general  peace  of  the  empire,  yet  so  long 
as  no  trouble  is  given  to  outside  parties  the  Nepalese  are  left 
to  themselves. 

The  Feudatory  States  are  scattered  over  North,  Central, 
and  Southern  India,  and  differ  very  much  both  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  people  and  of  their  rulers.  Some  of  the  Indian 
princes  are  intelligent,  cultivated  men,  and  make  good  rulers; 
but  this  remark  by  no  means  applies  to  the  majority  of 
them.  The  traditional  policy  of  the  Indian  Government  has 
been  for  the  Viceroy  to  appoint  a  British  "  Resident,"  an 
officer  of  high  rank,  who  resides  at  the  capital  of  the  Indian 
prince,  and  not  only  discharges  the  duties  of  a  minister  at 
court,  but  acts  also  as  an  adviser  in  behalf  of  the  Indian  Gov- 
ernment of  the  prince  to  whose  court  he  is  accredited.  This 
Resident  has  the  whole  power  of  the  Indian  Government  at 
his  back,  and  consequently  the  temptation  is  always  a  very 
strong  one  for  him  to  give  his  advice  in  a  tone  which  is  more 
or  less  authoritative,  and  which,  it  is  easy  to  believe,  often  be- 
comes irritating.  When  the  native  prince  is  a  man  of  dissolute 
character — as  happened  in  the  case  of  the  last  king  of  Oudh, 
and  more  recently  in  that  of  the  ruler  of  the  State  of  Baroda — 


THE  EMPIRE.  53 

he  may  wholly  disregard  the  advice  of  the  Resident,  in  which 
case  the  relations  between  them  become  so  strained  as  sooner 
or  later  to  call  for  interference  on  the  part  of  the  Viceroy. 
If  the  prince  gives  way,  and  actually  corrects  the  abuses 
which  were  pointed  out  to  him,  all  is  well;  if  not,  the  Vice- 
roy may  hesitate  for  a  season,  but,  when  the  emergency  be- 
comes urgent,  does  not  shrink  from  deposing  the  prince  and 
putting  a  successor  on  the  throne.  Before  the  Mutiny  the 
usual  policy  was  to  annex  such  a  State  to  British  territory; 
but  that  policy  has  been  abandoned,  and  probably  will  not 
be  resumed.  It  is  true,  Burma  has  been  recently  annexed, 
but  the  circumstances  were  very  exceptional.  Not  only  had 
the  prince  proved  himself  utterly  incapable,  but  grave  fears 
were  entertained  that  another  European  power  might  gain 
access  to  the  country  if  it  were  not  annexed. 

The  total  population  of  the  Feudatory  States,  by  the  last 
census,  is  64,123,230.  Opinions  differ  very  widely  as  to  the 
soundness  of  the  policy  of  maintaining  these  semi-independent 
States  scattered  about  in  different  parts  of  the  great  Indian 
Empire.  Some  able  men  have  maintained  that  it  would 
have  been  better  if  they  had  all  been  swept  away  long  years 
ago,  and  the  whole  empire  placed  under  a  single  administra- 
tion, with  the  same  laws  and  usages  in  operation  from  one 
extremity  of  the  country  to  the  other.  Others,  again,  regard 
these  States  as  invaluable,  not  only  to  the  Indian  Govern- 
ment, but  to  the  best  possible  development  of  the  empire  and 
improvement  of  the  people.  Beyond  all  doubt,  they  have 
proved  a  bulwark  in  time  of  danger  to  the  British  power  in 
India.  When  the  great  Mutiny  brought  on  a  crisis  such  as 
had  never  before  confronted  the  Indian  Government,  the 
rulers  of  these  States,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  stood 
loyally  by  the  imperiled  English  power,  'wisely  foreseeing 
that  the  overthrow  of  the  English  in  India  meant  that  many 
of  them  must  share  the  fate  of  the  falling  empire.  This  fact 
alone  would  probably  suffice  to  make  the  policy  of  retaining 
these  States  in  their  present  condition  permanent;  but,  aside 


54  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

from  this,  there  are  other  reasons  why  they  should  be  main- 
tained, if  not  exactly  in  their  present  form,  at  least  under  a 
purely  Indian  administration.  They  serve  as  training-schools 
for  Indian  statesmen  such  as  can  not,  under  existing  circum- 
stances, be  found  in  British  India.  Young  men  who  are  na- 
tives of  India  may  sometimes  rise  to  very  prominent  positions 
in  Bombay  or  Calcutta,  both  social  and  official ;  but  they 
can  never  find  such  a  career  in  either  of  those  cities  as  is 
open  to  them  in  some  of  the  native  capitals.  A  Bengali  has 
for  years  occupied  a  seat  upon  the  Supreme  Bench  of  the  Cal- 
cutta High  Court;  but  this  is  a  poor  prize  to  be  won  in  com- 
parison with  that  of  being  Prime  Minister  at  one  of  the  native 
courts.  When  it  is  remembered  that  all  India  is,  or  ought  to 
be,  a  great  training-school  for  the  people  of  the  land,  the 
value  of  these  Feudatory  States  to  the  rising  youth  of  the 
country  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
must  be  frankly  admitted  that  their  government  is,  in  many 
instances,  very  unsatisfactory.  Roads  and  public  works  of  every 
kind  are  neglected,  oppression  often  becomes  very  grievous, 
and  the  intolerable  abuses  with  which  all  Asiatic  countries 
have  long  been  familiar  are  tolerated  in  open  day.  This  must 
be  conceded ;  but  to  all  this  the  apologist  of  the  Feudatory 
States  will  reply  that  the  people  seem  to  love  to  have  it  so. 
Any  one  who  thoroughly  understands  human  nature  can  be- 
lieve this  to  be  possible.  Men  love  good  government,  no 
doubt,  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  poor  are  fond  of  pro- 
tection and  justice;  but  nevertheless  it  must  be  conceded  by 
every  one  who  understands,  not  merely  the  people  of  India, 
but  the  great  human  family  of  which  he  himself  is  a  member, 
that  ordinary  human  beings  would  rather  be  governed  un- 
justly by  their  own  rulers  than  have  their  affairs  administered 
with  justice  by  strangers. 

With  few  exceptions,  writers  on  India  have  taken  the  po- 
sition that  the  India  of  to-day  can  never  become  a  homo- 
geneous empire,  and  permanently  take  its  place  as  such  among 
the  great  powers  of  the  world.  In  one  of  his  great  speeches  on 


THE  EMPIRE.  55 

India,  John  Bright  is  reported  to  have  said  that  no  man, 
with  even  a  "glimmering  of  common  sense,"  could  look  upon 
such  a  result  as  a  possible  contingency  of  the  future ;  and 
this  remark  has  been  quoted  with  approval  by  Sir  John 
Strachey,  who  has  a  thorough  knowledge  of  India,  both  past 
and  present.  Nevertheless,  I  venture  to  take  a  place  in  the 
ranks  of  the  small  minority  who  look  upon  the  Empire  of 
India  as  a  permanent  factor  in  the  final  adjustment  which  is 
to  be  made  among  the  great  powers  of  the  earth. 

Geographically,  India  was  made  in  the  first  place  to  be 
the  home  of  one  great  nation ;  and  He  who  marks  out  the 
boundaries  of  all  human  habitations  certainly  seems  to  be 
conducting  the  people  to  the  very  destiny  which  leading 
statesmen  of  the  present  day  pronounce  a  permanent  impossi- 
bility. It  is  true  that  India  is  divided  into  many  diverse 
nationalities,  that  her  people  speak  many  different  languages, 
and  that  race  antipathies  and  religious  differences  are  as 
sharply  defined  within  the  bounds  of  the  empire  as  anywhere 
else  in  the  world.  Added  to  this,  all  the  traditions  of  the 
people  seem  to  point  in  the  direction  opposite  to  final  im- 
perial union  under  a  single  government,  while  the  caste  di- 
visions of  the  people,  which  have  so  long  paralyzed  all  tend- 
encies toward  union,  are  not  only  powerfully  felt  at  the 
present  day,  but  are  believed  by  many  to  be  inseparable  from 
the  very  instincts  of  the  people.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  new 
influences  are  at  work  which  have  never  been  felt  before. 
The  bonds  of  caste  are  certainly  growing  weaker,  while  the 
people  are  being  drawn  together,  not  only  by  the  influence  of 
the  English  education  common  alike  to  all,  but  by  common 
political  interests,  which  are  appreciated  in  precisely  the  same 
way  by  all  the  educated  classes  of  the  empire.  Added  to 
this  is  a  consideration  which  hardly  any  writer  on  the  subject 
seems  to  have  thought  it  worth  while  even  to  mention :  India 
is  destined  to  become  a  Christian  empire,  and  before  many 
generations  will  have  only  one  religion.  When  that  great 
change  takes  place,  an  active,  vigorous  Christianity  will  do 


56  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

more  in  a  century  to  weld  all  the  diverse  peoples  of  the 
peninsula  into  one  great  nation  than  all  other  influences 
combined  have  done  in  the  past  thousand  years.  During  a 
residence  of  more  than  thirty  years  in  the  country,  I  have 
distinctly  noticed  among  the  more  intelligent  classes  a  slowly 
evolving  but  steadily  growing  feeling  of  Indian  nationality; 
and  looking  at  the  question  purely  as  one  of  probabilities,  I 
do  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  express  my  opinion  strongly 
in  favor  of  the  permanency  of  the  empire.  This  remark  is 
made  without  any  reference  whatever  to  the  permanency  of 
English  rule.  This  phase  of  the  subject  will  be  discussed  at 
greater  length  in  another  chapter.  For  the  present/ suffice  it 
to  say  that  the  only  thing  which  can  prevent  India  from  taking 
her  place  among  the  great  empires  of  the  world  before  the 
lapse  of  many  centuries — possibly  before  the  lapse  of  many 
generations — would  be  the  premature  withdrawal  of  the  En- 
glish power  from  the  country. 


Chapter  IV. 
INDIA  AND  ENGLAND. 

IN  the  last  chapter  it  was  pointed  out  that  England  did  not 
seek  for  permanent  possessions  in  India,  and  that  the  En- 
glish people,  at  nearly  every  period  of  the  past,  have  been 
opposed  to  further  extension  of  territory  in  the  East.  To  all 
remarks  of  this  kind,  however,  the  reader,  especially  in 
America,  is  at  once  tempted  to  reply  :  "  Why,  then,  does  Eng- 
land continue  to  hold  India?  If  she  has  not  conquered  the 
people,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  if  India  is  not  a  subju- 
gated country,  nevertheless  she  is,  beyond  doubt,  a  country 
forcibly  retained  under  the  authority  of  another  and  a  distant 
power.  Why  do  not  the  English  people  at  once  release  their 
distant  dependency,  and  allow  the  people  of  India  to  manage 
their  own  destinies  according  to  their  best  wisdom  and  best 
ability?" 

Questions  like  these  very  naturally  suggest  themselves, 
especially  when  prompted  by  incorrect  statements  made  by 
hurried  tourists,  or  by  writers  who  have  never  taken  the 
pains  to  ascertain  what  the  exact  relation  of  India  to  England 
really  is.  In  the  first  place,  if  any  one  lightly  asks  the  ques- 
tion, "Why  does  England  continue  to  hold  India?"  it  might 
almost  suffice  to  answer,  "How  can  she  let  go  her  hold?"  It 
was  not  very  difficult  for  Clive,  by  the  aid  of  his  genius  and 
with  the  gallant  body  of  soldiers  at  his  back,  utterly  to  shatter, 
at  a  single  blow,  the  power  of  the  Mogul  Viceroy  in  Bengal ; 
but  from  the  hour  that  Bengal  was  won,  it  became  a  very 
difficult  task  indeed  for  Clive,  or  any  one  else,  to  give  up  the 
conquest  which  had  been  made.  There  never  has  been  an 
hour  since  the  day  that  the  first  foundation  of  British  power 

57 


58  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

in  India  was  laid,  when  the  English  people  could  have  left 
India  without  incurring  a  fearful  responsibility  for  which 
history  would  never  have  forgiven  them.  If  this  was  diffi- 
cult at  the  outset,  or  if  it  were  more  difficult  a  half  century 
ago,  it  becomes  simply  an  impossibility  at  the  present  day. 
No  living  statesman,  knowing  the  circumstances,  would  take 
it  upon  himself  to  withdraw  the  authority  which  now  holds 
the  vast  Indian  Empire  in  the  embrace  of  peace,  and  let  loose 
from  the  four  winds  all  the  elements  of  discord  and  rivalry, 
of  ambition  and  avarice,  of  war  and  rapine,  which  must  in- 
evitably follow  the  departure  of  the  last  English  r^uler  from 
the  shores  of  India.  Nor  could  any  living  statesman  for  a 
moment  think  of  arresting  the  progress  which  is  now  im- 
printing its  traces  upon  every  part  of  the  vast  empire,  and, 
turning  back  the  hands  upon  the  dial  of  time,  bid  the  sev- 
enteenth century  resume  its  reign  over  one-fifth  of  the 
human  race. 

I  do  not  for  a  moment  pretend  to  say  that  England  gains 
nothing  by  her  present  connection  with  India.  She  gains 
very  much  in  many  ways,  but  not  in  the  way  that  the  first 
English  adventurers  in  India  hoped  or  expected.  She  gains 
chiefly  in  her  commerce,  not  for  the  enriching  of  a  few 
monopolists,  but  of  the  great  English  nation ;  and  this,  of 
course,  adds  to  her  power.  She  gains  also  in  her  political 
prestige  and  power  throughout  the  whole  earth.  Whether 
the  Indian  soldier,  marching  side  by  side  with  European 
comrades,  is  ever  destined  to  take  an  honored  place  on  the 
battle-fields  of  Europe  may  possibly  be  doubtful ;  but  it  can 
not  be  questioned  that  the  simple  fact  that  the  great  Empire 
of  India,  with  its  standing  army  of  230,000  men,  is  a  de- 
pendency of  England,  with  its  vast  army  moving  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  commands  of  the  Crown,  must  give  to  the  Brit- 
ish Empire  an  importance  in  the  eyes  of  all  nations  far  be- 
yond what  it  would  otherwise  enjoy.  Another  advantage 
which  is  sometimes  referred  to  in  an  unfriendly  spirit,  is  the 
opportunities  for  employment  which  India  offers  to  young 


INDIA  AND  ENGLAND.  59 

Englishmen.  It  is  but  natural  that  the  Indian  should  look 
upon  every  English  youth  who  comes  out  to  take  up  work 
in  India  as  something  more  than  a  rival ;  as,  indeed,  an  un- 
just supplanter  of  the  children  of  the  soil ;  but  in  these  days 
of  freedom,  when  Germans  are  pressing  to  India  in  large  num- 
bers and  competing  with  Englishmen  on  equal  terms,  this 
objection  loses  much  of  its  force.  In  official  position  the 
Englishman  has  undoubtedly  the  preference,  and  in  all  the 
higher  positions  this  preference  practically  amounts  almost 
to  a  monopoly ;  but  these  posts,  after  all,  are  somewhat  lim- 
ited in  number,  and  although  the  Indian  gains  very  slowly 
upon  his  European  rival,  yet  as  the  years  go  by  he  will  con- 
tinue to  gain,  and  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  he  shall 
have  won  many  positions  which  are  now  beyond  his  reach. 
But  perhaps  the  greatest  benefit  which  India  confers  upon 
England  is  in  the  outlet  which  it  furnishes  for  English  cap- 
ital. This  is  a  feature  of  the  case  which  Clive  and  Warren 
Hastings  never  could  have  foreseen.  But  for  this  resource 
the  great  material  progress  which  has  been  witnessed  in 
India  during  recent  years  could  never  have  been  accom- 
plished. The  railways  have  been  built  almost  exclusively 
with  English  capital,  and  while  it  is  very  true  that  England 
will  ultimately  gain  a  large  return  for  the  capital  invested,  it 
is  none  the  less  true  that  India  gains,  not  only  the  use  of  the 
capital  itself,  but  the  material  progress  which  these  invest- 
ments make  possible.  It  is  probable,  too,  that  we  have  only 
seen  the  beginning  of  this  outflow  of  capital  from  England  to 
the  East.  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  great  marvels  of  the  age 
how  money  accumulated  at  the  great  centers  of  modern  civili- 
zation is  beginning  to  flow  to  the  utmost  ends  of  the  earth, 
and  seek  investment  in  all  manner  of  material  enterprises. 
This,  indeed,  bids  fair  to  serve  as  a  relief  to  what  would 
otherwise  be  a  state  of  financial  congestion  in  a  few  of  the 
great  cities  of  the  world  ;  and  it  is  a  pleasing  thought  that,  at 
a  time  when  ordinary  figures  no  longer  suffice  for  reckoning 
up  tiie  accumulated  wealth  of  the  great  Christian  nations, 


60  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

God  in  his  providence  seems  about  to  direct  the  use  of  this 
wealth  in  such  a  way  that  it  shall  serve  a  great  purpose  in 
hastening  the  civilization  of  the  human  race. 

If,  now,  we  ask  what  India  gains  by  her  connection  with 
England,  the  answer  is  not  so  difficult  to  give.  Her  first 
great  gain  can  be  stated  in  a  single  word — peace.  That 
Avhich  she  had  hardly  known  in  a  thousand  years,  a  state  of 
peace  throughout  all  her  widely  extended  borders,  has  now 
come  to  be  the  normal  condition  of  the  empire.  Here  and 
there,  it  is  true,  on  the  distant  frontiers,  a  little  war  is  heard 
of  now  and  then,  but  not  of  more  importance  than  the  Indian 
wars  with  which  the  American  people  have  always  been 
familiar,  while  throughout  the  country  at  large  peace  holds 
her  uninterrupted  sway.  In  the  next  place,  India  gains  the 
advantage  of  a  wisely  administered  and,  on  the  whole,  just 
Government.  This,  also,  is  something  new  to  every  part  of 
the  empire.  Among  the  great  Mogul  rulers  there  was  one, 
and  only  one,  who  was  not  only  a  great  ruler  but  a  good 
one — Akbar  the  Great.  Among  the  many  Hindu  rulers  of 
different  parts  of  the  country,  here  and  there  we  may  read 
of  one  who  was  relatively  a  good  and  just  man;  but  the  ex- 
ceptions have  been  very  few,  and  none  of  them  have  been 
such  as  could  have  influenced  the  empire  at  large.  At  pres- 
ent the  people  of  India  have  a  Government  adapted  to  their 
present  condition,  and  perhaps,  all  things  considered,  as 
good  a  Government  as  any  other  country  in  the  world  en- 
joys. Lastly,  India  now  has  a  chance  in  the  race  of  prog- 
ress. Beyond  all  doubt,  the  country,  taken  as  a  whole,  has 
entered  upon  a  new  career.  The  vitality  and  elasticity  which 
one  sees  everywhere  in  a  new  country  like  the  United  States, 
as  might  be  expected,  seems  almost  absent  in  a  lethargic 
country  like  India;  but  none  the  less  it  may  be  said  of  India 
as  Galileo  said  of  the  world — it  moves.  Her  progress  may 
be  slow,  but  it  is  a  great  thing  for  such  a  country  to  make 
progress  at  all,  and  it  is  certainly  not  too  much  to  say  that 
every  step  of  this  progress  would  have  been  utterly  impos- 


INDIA  AND  ENGLAND.  61 

sible  but  for  the  presence  and  protection  which  the  Govern- 
ment of  India  has  been  able  to  extend  to  the  people. 

It  may  be  proper  here  to  correct  some  wrong  impres- 
sions, or  rather  to  answer  some  unjust  accusations,  which 
from  time  to  time  have  been  been  brought  against  the  Indian 
Government  in  American  periodicals.  A  missionary  return- 
ing to  America,  and  moving  about  freely  among  the  people, 
very  often  meets  with  persons  who  seem  to  be  laboring 
under  the  impression  that  the  British  Government  of  India 
is  simply  an  organized  tyranny ;  that  the  poor  millions  of  the 
empire  are  ground  down  to  the  very  dust;  that  the  country 
is  held  by  the  English  solely  for  purposes  of  gain ;  and  that 
the  empire  is  constantly  drained  of  its  wealth  for  the  benefit 
of  the  people  of  a  distant  nation.  Even  in  India  itself  it  not 
unfrequently  happens  that  persons  are  found  laboring  under 
the  impression  that  the  people  are  cruelly  taxed,  and  that 
especially  the  poor  cultivators  are  robbed  of  nearly  all  their 
earnings  in  order  to  meet  the  exactions  which  the  Govern- 
ment makes  upon  them  for  their  lands.  All  overdrawn 
pictures  of  this  kind  do  injustice,  and  nothing  but  injus- 
tice, not  only  to  the  English  people,  but  to  the  Indian  Gov- 
ernment. As  a  simple  matter  of  fact,  the  people  are  not 
taxed  half  so  heavily  as  they  were  in  the  days  of  the  best 
of  the  Mogul  rulers.  In  those  olden  times  harassing  taxes 
of  many  kinds  were  imposed — such  as  for  weddings,  trees, 
religious  assemblies,  horses,  and  cattle — while  it  is  recorded 
among  the  archives  of  one  of  the  Mogul  emperors  that  a  poll- 
tax  of  five  dollars  was  imposed  upon  every  adult  male  person 
who  did  not  profess  the  Mohammedan  religion.  It  seems  in- 
credible that  such  a  tax  could  ever  have  been  collected,  espe- 
cially when  it  is  remembered  that  this  would  consume  the 
earnings  of  an  ordinary  laborer  for  two  months.  It  must  also 
be  remembered  that  money  in  the  days  of  Akbar  and  his  suc- 
cessors had  more  than  double  its  present  value.  It  need 
hardly  be  said  that  no  such  taxes  are  imposed  at  the  present 
time.  The  great  mass  of  the  people  are  practically  exempt 


62  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSJA. 

from  taxation  altogether,  and  it  has  been  pointed  out  that  if 
an  ordinary  laborer  abstains  from  alcoholic  drinks,  the  only 
tax  that  will  really  reach  him  will  be  in  the  shape  of  the  high 
duty  which  is  imposed  on  salt. 

It  will  have  to  be  conceded,  however,  that  a  large  revenue 
is  collected  by  the  Indian  Government  from  the  land,  and 
this  is  not  explained  so  easily  to  an  American  reader  as  to  an 
Englishman.  Every  person  brought  up  in  Great  Britain  is 
familiar  with  the  idea  of  a  farmer  paying  a  large  part  of  his 
income  to  a  landlord;  and  to  the  ordinary  English  mind  it  is 
quite  sufficient  to  say  that  the  Government  takes  the  place 
of  the  landlord,  and  as  such  deals  very  generously  with  the 
cultivator,  in  order  to  satisfy  him  that  there  is  no  injustice 
in  the  case.  Even  radical  writers,  such  as  the  late  Professor 
Fawcett  and  John  Stuart  Mill,  have  pointed  out  that  there 
is  really  no  land-tax  in  India  at  all;  that  the  money  taken 
by  the  Government  is  simply  so  much  money  that  would  go 
into  the  pocket  of  the  landlord  if  not  given  to  the  Govern- 
ment, and  hence  that  the  cultivator  has  nothing  to  complain 
of.  This  logic,  however,  often  seems  misty  to  the  American 
reader.  Nevertheless,  it  will  surprise  most  persons  who 
carefully  investigate  the  subject,  to  find  how  very  generously 
the  Indian  Government,  in  its  character  as  landlord,  deals 
with  the  people.  While  carefully  drawing  a  distinction  be- 
tween a  tax  and  what  is  called  land-revenue,  the  Govern- 
ment nevertheless  deals  with  the  people  in  collecting  the 
land-rent  in  a  most  liberal  spirit.  The  people  of  India 
have  always  been  familiar  with  this  method  of  collecting  rev- 
enue, and  when  the  English  power  was  first  established  in 
India,  the  old-time  policy  was  continued ;  but  the  rates  have 
been  reduced  from  time  to  time,  go  that  the  average  land-rent 
is  now  hardly  more  than  half  what  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  In 
theory,  the  State  is  supposed  to  receive  one-third  of  the 
produce  of  the  land,  but  in  practice  this  is  never  carried  out. 
Of  the  gross  produce  of  the  land,  the  amount  received  by 
Government  averages  from  three  to  eight  per  cent, — that  Is, 


INDIA  AND  ENGLAND.  63 

upon  the  total  crop.  The  highest  amount  in  North  India  is 
sixteen  per  cent,  while  in  some  cases  it  amounts  to  no  more 
than  three  per  cent.  This  is  owing  to  the  large  reductions 
which  are  made  on  account  of  bad  land,  uncertain  rain-fall, 
destruction  by  insects,  and  other  possible  injuries,  which  are 
all  thrown  together  and  a  general  average  drawn,  so  as  to 
make  the  reduction  quoted.  In  the  Northwest  Provinces  of 
India  the  land-rent  amounts,  if  we  put  it  in  the  shape  of  a 
tax,  to  about  eighty  cents  per  acre,  while  in  the  Punjab  it  is 
not  more  than  fifty.  In  Madras  it  is  about  eighty-two  cents 
per  acre,  and  in  Western  India  perhaps  a  little  higher. 

In  connection  with  what  has  been  said  above,  it  ought 
also  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  all  the  money  which  is  exacted 
from  the  people  of  India  is  in  reality  used  for  India.  The 
British  Government,  as  such,  gains  no  direct  revenue  from 
India.  All  these  taxes,  and  all  the  public  revenues,  go 
directly  into  the  treasury  of  the  Indian  Government,  and 
consequently  the  people  of  India  are  maintaining  their  own 
Government,  not  an  English  Government,  and  spend  their 
own  money  in  providing  for  their  own  welfare.  The  Amer- 
ican missionaries  in  India,  to  a  man,  will  bear  witness  that 
the  Government  is  administered  in  the  interests  of  the  people, 
and  it  can  not  be  sufficiently  regretted  that  grave  charges 
against  the  character  of  the  Government  should  sometimes  be 
made  by  persons  who  lightly  assume  that  the  grinding  pov- 
erty of  the  people  is  wholly  owing  to  the  cruel  taxation  under 
which  they  groan. 

If  any  charge  can  be  justly  brought  by  the  people  of  India 
against  their  rulers,  in  connection  with  taxation,  it  might, 
perhaps,  be  found  in  the  peremptory  way  in  which  the  policy 
of  free  trade  has  been  introduced  into  the  country.  When 
cotton-mills  first  began  to  be  established  in  India,  alarm  was 
quickly  manifested  in  Manchester  circles  lest,  with  the  cheap- 
ness of  labor  in  her  favor,  India  might  wrest  from  Man- 
chester the  supremacy  which  she  enjoyed  in  cotton  manufac- 
tures. For  some  years  the  Indian  mills,  although  very 


64  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

prosperous,  did  not  attempt  to  produce  any  of  the  finer  qual- 
ities of  cotton  goods;  but  as  time  passed,  it  began  to  be  more 
and  more  apparent  that  ultimately  India  would  learn  how 
to  compete  with  all  the  rest  of  the  world  on  most  advan- 
tageous terms,  and  put  into  the  market  goods  equal  in  every 
respect  to  those  sent  out  from  Europe.  This  prospect  pro- 
duced such  a  clamor  in  England  that  pressure  was,  it  is 
believed,  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Viceroy  of  the  day,  and 
after  one  or  two  attempts  at  reduction,  the  broad  policy  was 
finally  announced,  in  1882,  of  practically  making  India  a 
free-trade  country,  and  abolishing,  not  only  the  duty  on 
cotton  goods,  but  on  nearly  everything  else.  The  only  im- 
portant reservations  were  fire-arms,  alcoholic  drinks,  tobacco, 
and  salt.  The  last-named  exception  was  a  most  unfortunate 
one.  Salt  is  a  necessity  to  the  poorest  people,  and  from  per- 
sonal observation  I  long  since  became  convinced  that  mill- 
ions of  the  people  in  India  are  not  able  to  buy  as  much  salt 
as  they  need.  It  seemed  like  a  harsh  measure,  and  one  not 
dictated  by  the  most  enlightened  statesmanship,  to  throw 
away  a  large  source  of  income  such  as  the  cotton  goods 
afforded,  and  cling  to  the  duty  on  salt,  which  ultimately 
must  be  collected  from  the  most  wretchedly  poor  of  all  the 
millions  of  the  land.  At  this  point  it  must  be  admitted  the 
Indian  has  some  ground  for  complaint;  but  the  Indian  Gov- 
ernment would  no  doubt  reply  that  the  error,  if  committed, 
was  one  which  aimed  at  a  more  liberal  policy. 

A  question  which  is  constantly  asked,  not  only  in  Eng- 
land and  America,  but  very  often  in  India  itself,  is  one  that 
pertains  to  the  feelings  of  the  people  toward  their  English 
rulers.  "  Are  the  people  of  India  loyal  to  the  British 
power  ?"  u  As  you  go  among  the  people,  especially  in  re- 
mote districts,  how  do  you  find  them  affected  towards  the 
English  Government  ?"  "  Do  you  think  that  at  heart  the 
people  like  us  ?"  The  first  of  these  questions  is  frequently 
asked  in  America;  the  last  two  are  very  often  heard  in  India. 

If  we  use  the  word  loyal  in  a  strict  sense,  it  can  hardly 


INDIA  AND  ENGLAND.  65 

be  said  that  the  people  of  India  are  loyal  to  the  British 
Government ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  be  still  more 
incorrect  to  say  that  they  are  disloyal.  The  feeling  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  population — a  feeling  which  may  be  said 
to  have  been  almost  inherited — is  one  of  quiet  acquiescence, 
rather  than  of  active  support.  The  great  mass  of  the  people 
of  India  live  in  rural  villages,  and  with  them  the  question 
which  always  takes  precedence  of  every  other  is  that  of  quiet 
and  protection  from  violence  and  oppression.  In  olden  times 
they  were  constantly  harassed  by  raids  from  robbers,  attacks 
from  neighboring  chiefs  or  other  hostile  villages,  and  the 
uncertainty  which  attends  the  progress  of  interminable  wars. 
Thirty  years  ago,  all  over  North  India  could  be  seen  flimsy 
mud  walls  erected  around  small  towns  and  villages  as  a  de- 
fense against  unexpected  attacks  from  robbers  or  other  hos- 
tile bands.  But  these  marks  of  chronic  disorder  are  rapidly 
being  effaced  from  the  country.  Whatever  else  the  people 
may  be  deprived  of,  they  certainly  enjoy  the  blessings  of 
peace  and  quiet.  Robberies  still  take  place;  but,  as  a  general 
rule,  they  are  attended  with  no  more  violence  than  when  sim- 
ilar crimes  are  committed  in  European  countries.  The  peo- 
ple who  live  in  villages  appreciate  the  peace  and  quiet  which 
they  now  enjoy,  and,  without  an  exception,  they  attribute  it 
to  the  power  of  the  Government  whose  protection  they  enjoy. 
I  have  lived  among  these  village  people  a  great  deal,  and 
talked  with  many  of  them  who  knew  that  I  was  not  an 
Englishman,  and  also  who  had  sufficient  confidence  in  me  to 
speak  with  freedom,  and  I  believe  I  am  correct  in  saying 
that  the  general  feeling  is  one  of  cheerful  acquiescence  in  the 
present  state  of  affairs.  They  are  satisfied  with  the  British 
Government,  and  if  the  question  were  put  to  a  vote  would, 
no  doubt,  choose  it  permanently  rather  than  run  the  risk  of 
finding  other  masters  who  might  not  deal  so  gently  with 
them.  To  understand  this  feeling  the  reader  must  remember 
that  the  great  mass  of  the  people  in  India  have  always  been 
familiar  with  the  rule  of  strangers,  and  it  does  not  occur  to 

5 


66  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

them  that  it  is  within  the  range  of  possibilities  that  they 
should  ever  govern  themselves.  The  question  inevitably 
presents  itself  to  their  minds  somewhat  in  this  shape:  "Our 
rulers  must  be  aliens  in  any  case.  Shall  we  be  satisfied  with 
the  English,  or  can  we  hope  to  find  better  masters  if  we  ac- 
cept a  change  ?"  When  put  to  them  in  this  way,  nine  out  of 
every  ten  of  the  country  people  will  reply  that  they  prefer 
their  present  rulers. 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  over  fifty  millions 
of  the  people  of  India  are  Mohammedans.  A  great  many  of 
these,  certainly  more  than  half,  are  purely  Indian  by  birth  and 
association,  and  are  probably  about  as  well  satisfied  with  En- 
glish rule  as  their  Hindu  neighbors.  It  is  very  different, 
however,  with  the  more  prominent  Mohammedans,  many  of 
whom  can  remember  the  kings  of  Oudh  and  the  palmy  days 
of  Lucknow,  and  all  of  whom  have  heard  from  their  fathers  of 
the  good  old  times  when  the  Mussalmans  were  the  ruling  race 
throughout  all  Northern  India.  The  special  privileges  which 
they  enjoyed  in  former  times  have  all  been  taken  away,  and 
now  they  must  meet  the  Hindu  on  equal  terms,  not  only  in 
the  courts  of  justice  and  in  public  service,  but  in  the  great 
arena  where  all  the  people  of  the  land  must  contend  alike  for 
whatever  success  they  may  win.  Many  of  the  better  edu- 
cated Mohammedans  are  enlightened  and  liberal-minded  men, 
and  are  as  well  disposed  toward  the  British  Government  as 
their  Hindu  neighbors ;  but  all  who  know  the  followers  of 
Islam  as  a  people  will  agree  that  an  undertone  of  hostility 
to  their  Christian  rulers,  not  always  carefully  suppressed, 
prevails  among  them.  Of  such  men  it  may  be  truly  said 
that  at  heart  they  are  disloyal,  and  probably  only  await  their 
opportunity  for  manifesting  their  feelings  in  hostile  acts. 

Among  the  younger  class  of  educated  Hindus,  also,  a 
feeling  of  more  or  less  pronounced  hostility  to  English  rule 
is  indicated  with  a  freedom  which  would  surprise  an  outside 
observer.  The  press  of  India  is  as  free  as  that  of  England, 
and  the  newspapers  discuss  the  policy  of  the  Government  of 


INDIA  AND  ENGLAND.  67 

the  day  very  much  after  the  example  set  them  by  the  news- 
papers of  England.  Indeed,  it  is  unfortunate  that  by  copy- 
ing too  faithfully  the  spirit  and  style  of  their  English  con- 
temporaries, the  Indian  papers  have  fallen  into  a  habit  of 
indiscriminate  praise  or  censure,  and  of  unrestrained  expres- 
sions of  feeling  which  often  does  them  great  injustice.  The 
private  thought  of  the  writers  is  probably  to  the  effect  that 
as  in  England  statesmen  and  editors  say  all  manner  of  harsh 
and  violent  things  about  their  opponents  without  meaning 
more  than  half  of  it,  so  in  India  they  must  denounce  where 
they  are  expected  to  criticise,  and  condemn  where  they 
ought  to  inquire.  If  a  stranger  from  India  or  China  were 
to  take  up  an  ordinary  daily  newspaper,  either  in  New  York 
or  London,  and  read  the  fierce  attacks  made  in  its  columns 
upon  the  Government  of  the  day,  he  might  be  led  to  suppose 
that  the  writer  was  bitterly  hostile  to  the  Government  under 
whose  protection  he  lived,  and  even  ready  to  take  up  arms 
to  assist  in  its  overthrow.  If  we  judge  a  large  and  increas- 
ing class  of  young  men  in  India  who  talk  and  write  after 
this  style,  it  will  undoubtedly  appear  as  if  they  were  disloyal 
to  the  British  Government,  and  cherished  bitter  and  hostile 
feelings  against  it.  To  some  extent  it  must  be  admitted 
that  such  an  accusation  would  be  just,  but  in  the  strict  sense 
of  the  word  it  would  be  going  very  much  too  far  to  assume 
that  these  men  are  really  disloyal. 

One  cause  of  the  discontent  of  the  educated  classes  'is 
found  in  their  disappointment  at  not  finding  employment 
'under  Government  when  they  complete  their  education.  Eor 
some  reason,  all  pupils  in  Indian  schools  persist  in  cherishing 
the  notion  that  they  place  the  Government  under  an  obliga- 
tion to  themselves  when  they  consent  to  accept  an  education, 
and  when  ready  to  enter  upon  active  life  they  feel  bitterly 
disappointed  if  no  door  of  employment  is  open  to  them.  In 
the  nature  of  the  case,  Government  service  can  not  be  given 
to  more  than  a  very  small  minority  of  all  who  secure  even 
a  good  English  education,  and  as  the  schools  and  colleges  of 


68  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

the  country  are  pouring  forth  a  constantly  increasing  multi- 
tude of  fairly  well  educated  young  men,  many  of  whom  earn 
a  precarious  living  by  working  for  nominal  wages,  while 
many  more  can  not  find  any  employment  at  all,  the  blame 
is  at  once,  however  unjustly,  laid  at  the  door  of  Govern- 
ment, and  a  spirit  of  discontent  is  thus  fomented,  which  may 
at  a  future  day  become  more  serious  than  it  is  at  present. 

There  is  also  a  certain  amount  of  discontent  and  ill-feel- 
ing among  a  somewhat  limited  class  of  respectable  natives, 
especially  in  rural  districts,  who  do  not  enjoy  the  local  pres- 
tige which  was  freely  accorded  them  or  their  fathers  in  olden 
times.  The  higher  classes  in  India,  especially  if  they  be- 
long, not  only  to  a  higher  class,  but  to  a  higher  caste,  are 
the  last  people  in  the  world  to  look  with  complacency  upon 
the  leveling  process  which  English  rule,  even  with  all  its 
limitations  and  reservations,  is  constantly  carrying  out.  I 
have  often  met  with  singular,  and  sometimes  amusing,  illus- 
trations of  the  ill-feeling  which  lurks  in  the  minds  of  some 
of  the  people  who  feel  that  their  former  prestige  has  been 
ruthlessly  destroyed.  One  example  will  suffice  to  show  how 
strangely  our  modern  ideas  of  equality  before  the  law  are 
viewed  by  Hindus  of  this  class.  I  was  once  spending  a  day 
in  a  remote  travelers'  bungalow  among  the  mountains,  when 
an  elderly  native,  who  belonged  to  a  family  of  much  local 
distinction,  called  on  me,  and,  in  the  course  of  a  long  conver- 
sation, begged  permission  to  speak  with  all  freedom  about 
public  affairs.  He  told  me  that  he  understood  fully  that  I 
was  not  an  Englishman,  and  wished  me  to  give  him  my  views 
as  to  the  relative  merits  of  the  Russian  and  English  Govern- 
ments. He  then  proceeded  to  speak  with  some  bitterness  of 
the  wrongs  which  men  of  his  class  had  to  endure  under  the 
Indian  Government,  and  when  I  called  his  attention  to  the 
fact  that  there  was  much  better  public  order  and  much  more 
progress  and  prosperity  in  the  province  in  which  we  were 
both  then  living  than  in  the  little  native  State  west  of  us,  he 
at  once  took  issue  with  me.  I  could  not  convince  him  that 


INDIA  AND  ENGLAND.  69 

the  people  tinder  British  rule  were  in  any  respect  better  off 
than  those  in  the  native  State.  I  then  appealed  to  his 
knowledge  of  the  country  previous  to  the  advent  of  the  Brit- 
ish. It  happened  that  the  little  province  in  which  we  were 
had  been  overrun  by  the  Nepalese,  and  the  people  suffered  so 
cruelly  from  their  conquerors  that  a  new  adjective  has  been 
incorporated  into  their  language — gurkhaK — the  word  being 
simply  the  tribal  name  of  their  conquerors,  but  now  in  com- 
mon use  made  to  mean  cruel  or  tyrannical.  My  visitor  did 
not  for  a  moment  hesitate  to  say  that  he  would  prefer  even 
the  Nepalese  to  the  peaceful  rule  of  the  English.  I  pressed 
my  point  by  referring  him  to  the  courts,  and  said  :  "  The 
poorest  man  in  the  province  can  go  down  to  Srinagar  and 
make  his  appeal  to  the  magistrate  against  any  one  who  tries 
to  oppress  him  or  do  him  wrong.  All  are  equal  before  the 
law,  and  the  magistrate  will  render  as  impartial  justice  as  you 
can  possibly  ask  or  expect."  So  far  from  pacifying  my  old 
visitor,  this  remark  simply  added  fuel  to  the  flame,  and  he 
replied  with  great  energy  :  "  That  is  just  what  I  complain  of. 
In  the  days  of  our  native  Rajas,  if  any  man  without  a 
well-established  character  ventured  to  go  into  court  and  lodge 
a  complaint  against  a  respectable  person  like  myself,  if  he 
did  not  make  good  his  accusation  he  knew  very  well  that  he 
would  probably  have  both  his  ears  cut  off  and  be  turned  out 
of  court.  Hence,  in  those  days  no  such  men  ever  ventured 
to  make  a  complaint  or  show  their  faces  in  any  place  near  a 
court ;  but  now  see  how  it  is  !  Any  low-caste  man  in  this 
province  can  not  only  go  down  to  the  English  court  at  Sri- 
nagar and  lodge  a  complaint  agains.t  me,  but  he  can  compel 
me  to  meet  him  in  open  court  face  to  face,  and  answer  his 
questions,  and  defend  myself  as  if  I  were  a  common  man  of 
no  standing  whatever !  It  is  this  that  we  complain  of. 
There  is  no  honor,  no  sense  of  right,  no  justice  left.  That 
which  you  call  justice  and  impartiality  is  really  wrong  and 
oppression."  I  could  not  convince  niy  indignant  visitor 
that  he  was  taking  the  wrong  view  of  the  case,  and  he 


70  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

went  away  apparently  confirmed,  rather  than  shaken,  in  his 
opinion. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  the  peo- 
ple of  India,  taken  as  a  people,  will  be  able  to  appreciate  all 
the  benefits  of  the  Government  under  which  they  seem  des- 
tined to  live.  As  said  in  a  previous  chapter,  it  is  altogether 
probable  that  they  would  prefer  a  bad  Government  of  their 
own  to  a  good  Government  administered  by  strangers,  if 
they  believed  that  the  possibility  of  a  choice  was  within  their 
reach.  They  are  simply  human  beings  with  the  common 
instincts  of  other  men,  and  would  undoubtedly  prefer  to 
have  rulers  of  their  own;  but  a  long  and  painful  history  has 
made  them  familiar  with  the  idea  of  being  ruled  by  strangers, 
and  hence  they  not  only  accept  the  inevitable,  but  I  think 
are  persuaded  that,  all  things  considered,  their  present  Gov- 
ernment is  the  best  they  can  hope  to  have,  and  one  with 
which  they  have  reason  to  be  satisfied. 


Ctjapfc^r  Y. 
THE  RELIGIONS   OF   INDIA. 

IN  the  imperial  census  of  India  for  1881,  fourteen  religions 
are  recognized  as  belonging  to  the  empire;  namely,  the 
Hindu,  Mohammedan,  Aboriginal,  Buddhist,  Christian,  Sikh, 
Jain,  Satnami,  Kabirpanthi,  Nat-worship,  Parsee,  Jewish, 
Brahmo,  and  Kumbhipathia.  These  names  are  ranged  in  the 
order  of  the  numerical  strength  of  the  several  religions, 
from  which  it  will  be  seen  that  Christianity  stands  fifth  in 
the  list,  and  if  Burma  is  left  out  and  only  India  proper  con- 
sidered, Christianity  takes  the  fourth  place.  The  above  di- 
vision, however,  is  not  very  accurate.  Contrary  to  the  gen- 
eral impression  in  Christian  lands,  there  are  not  only  gods 
many  but  also  sects  many  in  India;  and  hence  several  of  the 
so-called  religions  enumerated  in  the  above  list  are,  strictly 
speaking,  nothing  more  than  parts  of  the  great  composite 
structure  known  as  Hinduism.  It  is  very  often  made  a  sub- 
ject of  lament  in  England  and  America  that  missionaries 
should  retain  their  denominational  names  after  going  to  In- 
,  dia,  as  they  must  thereby  bewilder  the  simple  people,  and 
make  it  impossible  for  them  to  understand  how  the  strangers 
can  be  messengers  of  the  one  God,  and  followers  of  one  and 
the  same  Saviour.  As  a  practical  matter  of  fact,  however,  this 
difficulty  exists  only  in  the  minds  of  those  who  are  fond  of 
making  such  lamentations.  During  a  missionary  experience 
now  nearing  a  third  of  a  century,  I  have  never  in  a  single 
instance  experienced  any  difficulty  from  this  source.  The 
people  of  India  are  perfectly  familiar  with  divisions  and  sub- 
divisions in  every  religious  system  with  which  they  have 
been  acquainted.  An  intelligent  Mohammedan  once  told  me 

71 


72  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

that  there  were  at  least  a  thousand  different  minor  sects 
among  the  Mohammedans  of  India.  Be  that  as  it  may,  they 
certainly  are  divided  into  two  great  camps.  As  for  the 
Hindus,  the  whole  system  is  but  a  conglomeration  of  divis- 
ions and  subdivisions.  It  is  only  when  the  missionary  comes 
in  contact  with  the  intelligent  natives  who  have  learned  the 
objection  from  European  friends,  that  he  hears  any  one  pro- 
fessing to  be  bewildered  by  the  sectarian  or  denominational 
differences  of  missionaries.  Keeping  these  facts  in  mind, 
we  may  at  once  eliminate  from  the  above  list  at  least  three  of 
the  so-called  religions;  namely,  the  Satnami,  Kabirpanthi, 
and  Kumbhipathia.  Even  the  Brahmos,  a  modern  theistic 
sect  of  reformed  Hindus,  are  popularly  regarded  by  the  peo- 
ple as  a  Hindu  body. 

The  mass  of  the  people  of  India  may  be  separated  into 
two  great  divisions,  Hindus  and  Mohammedans,  in  the  pro- 
portion of  four-fifths  of  the  former  to  one-fifth  of  the  latter. 
The  term  Aboriginal,  used  above,  is  merely  a  word  to  indi- 
cate the  inability  of  the  census  officers  to  find  any  special  term 
which  could  be  applied  to  the  religion  of  the  aboriginal  tribes. 
About  seven  millions  of  them  are  so  distinct  and  separate  in 
all  that  pertains  to  religious  ideas  and  worship  that  they  can 
not  properly  be  included  under  the  term  Hindu.  Perhaps 
the  utmost  that  the  word  can  be  taken  to  mean  is  that  these 
people  can  not  properly  be  classed  among  either  the  Hindus 
or  Mohammedans.  A  better  division  could  be  made  by  strik- 
ing off  from  the  list  of  both  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  a 
large  number  of  ignorant  and  superstitious  people  who  in 
point  of  intelligence  and  civilization  do  not  rise  very  high 
above  the  aborigines,  and  including  the  whole  of  them  under 
the  term  demon-worshipers.  The  missionary  constantly  en- 
counters this  peculiar  cult  wherever  he  goes  among  the  peo- 
ple, and  so  far  as  my  own  observation  has  extended,  I  incline 
to  the  opinion  that  it  assumes  a  more  decided  and  repulsive 
character  among  a  certain  class  of  Mohammedans  than  among 
the  Hindus.  If  I  were  asked  to  give  an  account  in  a  few 


RELIGIONS.  73 

words  of  the  prevailing  religions  of  India,  I  should  say  that 
the  Hindus  take  the  lead,  followed  at  a  great  distance  by  the 
Mohammedans,  while  the  third  class  of  religionists  are  demon- 
worshipers,  numbering,  probably,  not  less  than  forty  or  fifty 
millions  of  the  people.  The  Nat- worship,  which  is  spoken  of 
in  the  census  report  as  peculiar  to  Burma,  is  but  another  form 
of  this  same  demon-worship.  Sometimes  the  worshipers  of  a 
demon  are  Hindus  in  the  observance  of  caste,  and  of  many  of 
the  forms  of  Hindu-worship;  but,  to  their  minds,  the  idol  be- 
fore which  they  present  their  offerings  is  the  representation, 
not  of  a  god,  but  of  a  demon.  Multitudes  of  the  more  igno- 
rant people  believe  in  a  kind  of  possession  very  much,  in 
some  of  its  forms,  like  that  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament, 
but  more  frequently  assuming  phases  peculiar  to  spiritist  me- 
diums. The  Mohammedans  have  received  through  their  Ko- 
ran a  more  definite  idea  of  Satan,  as  the  prince  of  devils  and 
the  ruler  of  the  powers  of  darkness,  than  the  Hindus  have 
ever  acquired,  and  hence  devil-worship  proper  is  found  in  a 
more  openly  avowed  form  among  them  than  among  the  Hin- 
dus or  aborigines.  In  some  form  or  other,  however,  this 
kind  of  faith,  or  misfaith,  is  exceedingly  prevalent  in  India, 
and  is  strangely  interwoven,  not  only  with  the  ordinary  re- 
ligious ideas  of  the  people,  but  with  many  mischievous  prac- 
tices which,  in  other  nations  and  in  various  past  times,  have 
been  known  as  witchcraft,  necromancy,  and  various  forms  of 
the  black  art,  and  last,  although  never  to  be  called  least, 
modern  spiritualism,  or,  more  correctly  speaking,  spiritism. 

In  subsequent  chapters  a  brief  account  will  be  given  of 
the  leading  religious  systems  of  India ;  but  before  attempt- 
ing that  task  it  may  be  proper  to  speak  of  a  few  points  of 
very  general  agreement  among  the  people  in  their  religious 
notions.  The  first  remark  which  I  shall  make  is  one  which 
will,  no  doubt,  surprise  many  readers,  especially  if  they  have 
never  been  beyond  the  pale  of  Christian  lands.  A  common 
impression  prevails  in  England  and  America  that  all  persons 
brought  up  in  what  are  called  heathen  countries  are  abso- 


74  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

lutely  ignorant  of  God.  I  am  frank  to  confess  that  when, 
in  early  youth,  I  came  to  India  as  a  missionary,  I  was  under 
the  impression  that  after  learning  the  language  my  first  work 
would  be  to  convince  the  people  that  there  was  a  God,  the 
Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  ;  and  hence  it  was  a  surprise  to 
me  to  find,  when  able  to  talk  to  the  people,  that  when  I 
spoke  of  the  great  Being  who  had  made  all  things,  nobody 
was  ever  disposed  to  dispute  my  statement.  Through  all  the 
years  which  have  passed  since,  I  believe  I  have  never  once 
found  a  human  being  who  denied  the  existence  of  a  Supreme 
Deity,  the  Creator  of  all  things — unless  it  was  a  person  edu- 
cated in  England  or  Germany  or  the  United  States ;  and  in 
every  such  case  I  believe  it  will  be  found,  on  examination, 
that  the  man  who  accepts  atheism  is  one  who  has  been  edu- 
cated into  this  view.  The  people  of  India,  it  is  very  true,  act 
and  talk  and  seem  to  think,  as  if  they  did  not  accept  the  ex- 
istence of  God  as  a  matter  settled  beyond  all  question.  Nev- 
ertheless, whatever  the  experience  of  others  may  be,  I  can 
say  that,  while  I  have  often  penetrated  to  villages  and  hamlets 
where  no  other  Christian  had  ever  been  seen  or  heard,  and 
while  I  have  talked  to  men  and  women  who  never  could 
have  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing  from  any  one  about  even 
the  simplest  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  yet  everywhere, 
when  I  have  spoken  of  Him  who  made  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,  who  reared  up  the  mountains  and  put  the  stars  in  their 
places,  and  made  the  earth  to  bloom  and  blossom  and  bear 
fruit  for  man,  all  my  hearers  at  once  have  fully  agreed  with 
me,  without  any  hesitation  or  reservation. 

Whence  have  they  received  this  idea?  According  to  the 
popular  theory  of  the  day,  it  will  be  said,  no  doubt,  that  it 
was  brought  into  India  by  the  Aryan  ancestors  of  the  present 
Brahmans,  or  if  not  brought  with  them,  developed  by  them ; 
but  this  assumption  is  not  only  a  mere  guess,  but,  in  view  of 
all  the  facts  of  the  case,  is  positively  incredible.  For  instance^ 
the  Nat- worshipers  of  Burma  are  a  people  who  never  could 
have  received  the  slightest  impression  of  any  kind  from  the 


RELIGIONS.  75 

Aryan  invaders  of  India ;  nor  is  there  reason  to  believe  that 
they  owe  anything  to  any  people  more  advanced  than  them- 
selves in  any  part  of  the  world.  Mr.  Bourdillon,  one  of  the 
census  officers  in  India,  a  gentleman  of  ability,  writes  of 
these  people  that  "  their  worship  is  the  first  form  of  religion 
that  primitive  society  has  developed.  They  possess  neither 
creed  nor  dogma,  neither  churches  nor  teachers,  and  there 
runs  through  them  all  the  idea  of  a  great  Spirit  who  is  to  be 
worshiped  in  his  various  forms  or  manifestations  in  the 
world  of  nature,  and  of  inferior  deities,  harmful  or  beneficent, 
whose  wrath  must  be  averted  or  favor  secured."  Here  we 
find  a  primitive  people,  with  the  process  of  evolution  in  its 
first  stages,  and  yet  they  have  underlying  their  crudest 
notions  a  belief  in  a  Supreme  Spirit;  and  as  often  as  we  go 
back  to  the  earliest  stage  of  society  and  to  the  most  primitive 
standard  of  human  thought — so  far  as  India,  at  least,  is  con- 
cerned— we  everywhere  meet  this  idea  of  one  great  Supreme 
Being.  Whatever  the  explanation  of  this  may  be,  it  can  not 
be  accounted  for  by  saying  that  the  Aryans  brought  the  idea 
with  them.  They  found  it  in  India  when  they  came,  and  to 
this  day  it  lingers  everywhere  in  the  land;  and  I  believe 
that  careful  examination  will  show  that  it  is  found  every- 
where in  the  world.  But  while  all  agree  in  recognizing  the 
existence  of  a  Supreme  Being,  this  idea  is  everywhere  over- 
laid by  the  common  error  that,  for  all  practical  purposes,  this 
Supreme  Being  is  beyond  their  reach ;  and  hence  inter- 
mediary beings  of  all  kinds  and  classes  are  provided  by  the 
imagination,  or  by  crafty  priests,  and  the  simple  people  made 
to  believe  that  they  must  depend  upon  all  manner  of  visible 
and  invisible  lords  and  masters,  rather  than  upon  Him  who 
claims  the  supreme  allegiance  of  all  hearts. 

Another  word  needs  to  be  added  to  complete  what  has 
just  been  said  about  the  general  belief  in  a  Supreme  Being. 
When  I  first  became  a  missionary,  I  fully  expected  that,  after 
learning  the  language  of  the  people,  it  would  be  necessary 
for  me  first  to  teach  them  the  existence  of  a  God,  and  next 


76  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

to  unfold  the  idea  of  a  revelation  of  his  will.  In  my  sim- 
plicity and  ignorance,  I  fully  expected  that,  after  persuading 
the  people  to  accept  God's  revealed  word,  it  would  be  neces- 
sary for  me,  from  that  word,  to  teach  them  the  difference  be- 
tween right  and  wrong;  but  after  learning  the  language,  I  found 
that  the  great  essential  lines  of  demarkation  between  good  and 
evil,  between  right  and  wrong,  between  justice  and  injustice, 
were  recognized  by  them — not  as  clearly,  perhaps,  as  among 
Christians,  and  yet  distinctly  recognized.  I  have  never  found  it 
necessary  to  use  a  single  word  of  argument  to  convince  any 
native  of  India  that  lying,  stealing,  adultery,  cruelty,  murder, 
drunkenness,  covetousness,  dishonoring  parents,  false  witness, 
and  other  such  sins,  were  sinful.  In  some  way  that  distinc- 
tion has  been  written  upon  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people.  Here  and  there  the  lines  may  be  a  little 
obscured,  and  the  missionary  everywhere  quickly  perceives 
that  the  moral  standard  recognized  by  the  people  is  one 
which  conforms  much  more  closely  to  the  patriarchal  than 
to  the  Christian  code,  even  when  emasculated  by  the  later  in- 
fluences which,  to  so  great  an  extent,  have  crept  into  the 
Christian  Church.  Nevertheless,  these  two  great  facts  are 
not  only  striking  in  themselves,  but  worthy  of  the  most 
careful  thought  and  inquiry  on  the  part  of  all  Christian 
students,  while  at  the  same  time  they  afford  a  basis  of  opera- 
tion for  the  missionary  when  he  begins  his  great  work,  the 
value  of  which  he  appreciates  more  and  more  as  the  years  go 
by.  God  has  not  left  any  of  the  people  whom  he  has  created 
and  placed  in  this  world  in  such  absolute  spiritual  darkness 
as  has  too  generally  been  supposed. 

The  people  of  India,  without  regard  to  creed,  are  almost 
universally  believers  in  fatalism  in  some  form  or  other.  It 
forms  an  important  dogma  in  the  creed  of  the  Mohammedan, 
and  is  accepted  universally  by  every  Hindu.  Pious  Hindus 
believe  that  each  child,  on  the  sixth  night  after  its  birth,  has  its 
destiny  for  good  or  for  evil  imprinted  upon  its  forehead;  and 
they  believe  that  the  convolutions  of  the  brain,  if  examined, 


RELIGIONS.  77 

would  show  exactly  what  the  fate  of  the  little  one  is  to  be. 
It  need  hardly  be  said  that  a  belief  in  fatalism,  so  universal 
and  unquestionably  received  by  all  classes  of  the  people,  has 
a  benumbing  effect  upon  their  character,  and  not  only  makes 
them  ready  to  yield  to  discouragement,  under  the  impression 
that  fate  is  against  them,  but  prevents  them  from  attempting 
any  great  achievement,  especially  of  a  moral  character.  It  no 
doubt  has  contributed  much  to  give  them  the  patience  and 
quiet  endurance  for  which  they  are  somewhat  distinguished; 
but  this  does  not  for  a  moment  counterbalance  the  evil  in- 
fluences of  this  wrong  notion.  It  is  worth  something  to  a 
man  for  him  to  be  able  to  die  in  apparently  stolid  indifference, 
simply  because  he  believes  that  the  manner  and  time  of  his 
death  have  been  written  on  his  forehead  in  his  infancy ;  but 
this  is  a  poor  compensation  for  the  paralyzing  of  his  energy 
and  the  spiritual  lethargy  which  settles  permanently  upon 
him,  when  he  is  taught  to  believe  that  his  destiny  is  in  no 
sense  whatever  within  his  own  control. 

Another  popular  form  of  error,  which  has  rested  like  a 
blight  upon  the  Indian  mind  for  untold  ages,  is  their  well- 
known  belief  in  pantheism.  In  some  form  or  other,  not  only 
the  orthodox  Hindus,  but  nearly  all  classes  of  the  Indian 
people  seem  to  be  under  the  spell  of  this  illogical  but 
strangely  fascinating  doctrine.  It  may  be  stated  by  different 
schools  of  religious  thought  in  different  language,  or  even  de- 
nied altogether  by  some ;  but  practically  it  is  the  same  thing 
rising  to  the  surface  wherever  one  goes,  and  asserting  itself 
in  all  manner  of  direct  and  indirect  ways.  The  most  ignorant 
idolater,  who  bows  down  before  a  rude  image  made  out  of 
baked  mud,  will  excuse  himself  by  saying  that  it  is  not  the 
mud  which  he  worships,  but  the  god  which  is  in  the  mud,  or, 
possibly,  the  god  of  which  this  mud  is  a  manifestation. 
Others,  more  philosophical,  or  at  least  more  mystical,  have 
been  taught  to  state  the  case  somewhat  differently,  and  say 
there  is  nothing  in  the  universe  but  God,  and  that  the  idol, 
and  the  trees,  and  the  stars,  and  all  external  things,  are  bufc 


78  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

illusions  of  the  senses.  But  a  little  inquiry  will  show  that 
it  is  essentially  the  same  delusive  notion  that  is  in  the  mind 
of  both  parties — a  confounding  of  the  Creator  with  the  creat- 
ure, and  the  practical  denial  of  a  Supreme  Being,  under  pre- 
tense of  making  every  object  not  simply  an  evidence  of  God's 
handiwork,  but  a  visible  manifestation  of  God  himself.  This 
very  ancient  belief  may  not  seem  so  very  harmful  at  first 
•  sight  to  ignorant  people,  like  the  mass  of  the  natives  of  India; 
but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  leads  to  endless  mazes  of  error, 
and  inevitably  lowers  their  moral  standard.  The  average 
mind  can  not  draw  distinctions  which  may  be  clear  enough  to 
the  philosopher,  and  with  the  multitude  it  is  but  a  single  step 
from  the  deification  of  nature  to  the  sanctification  of  sin.  No 
notion  is  more  persistent  in  the  Hindu  mind  than  that  sin 
can  not  be  attributed  to  power;  and  when  a  whole  people 
can  be  persuaded  that  wrong  is  not  wrong  when  God  is  the 
actor,  religion  at  once  sinks  into  utter  moral  debasement,  and 
all  moral  standards  become  obscured.  The  mind  is  dark- 
ened, and  the  fine  edge  of  the  conscience  dulled  by  this  per- 
nicious system ;  and  when  its  extraordinary  hold  on  the 
Indian  mind  becomes  fully  known,  wonder  need  no  longer 
be  expressed  that  people  gifted  with  such  good  intellects  have 
made  so  little  progress  during  the  past  two  thousand  years. 

The  first  three  chapters  of  Genesis,  brief  and  fragmentary 
as  they  are,  can  only  be  fairly  appreciated  when  their  influence 
upon  human  thought  and  moral  conduct  is  fully  considered. 
One  has  to  live  in  India  a  third  of  a  century  to  be  able  to 
'appreciate  the  simple  story  of  creation  and  man's  first  ex- 
perience in  Eden.  More  vital  religious  truth,  and  more  of 
those  truths  which  primitive  people  need,  are  crowded  into 
those  three  chapters  than  can  be  found  in  all  the  sacred  books 
of  all  the  ancient  and  modern  nations  of  the  earth.  The  ex- 
istence of  God,  his  spirituality,  personality,  supreme  author- 
ity ;  the  absolute  subordination  of  matter;  the  nature  of  sin,  of 
temptation,  of  guilt,  of  alienation  from  God,  of  man's  free 
moral  agency,  including  the  direct  personal  responsibility  of 


RELIGIONS.  79 

each  individual, — all  these  vital  truths  are  taught  by  word 
and  illustration  so  simply  and  so  clearly  that  peasant  and 
philosopher  alike  comprehend  them.  Whether  Moses  wrote 
the  story  or  not,  whether  it  was  all  written  at  once  or  col- 
lected from  different  countries  and  different  ages,  the  extraor- 
dinary fact  remains  that  those  three  chapters  have  cut  out 
the  channels  in  which  the  best  thought  and  purest  convic- 
tions of  the  race  have  flowed  for  ages  upon  ages  past.  But 
for  them,  modern  civilization,  modern  thought,  and  modern 
progress  must  have  been  forever  impossible.  But  for  them, 
the  Anglo-Saxon  intellect  would  to  this  day  be  struggling 
vainly  to  free  itself  from  the  interminable  cobwebs  of  error 
which  have,  through  all  the  long  years  of  its  history,  obscured 
the  vision  of  the  Indian  branch  of  the  Aryan  race. 

While  no  attempt  is  made  in  this  chapter  to  give,  even  in 
outline,  an  account  of  the  popular  religious  systems  of  India, 
it  may  not  be  amiss  to  insert  here  the  latest  religious  statis- 
tics of  the  empire,  as  furnished  by  the  census  taken  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1891.  The  aggregate  population  indicated  in  this  table 
is  larger  than  that  furnished  by  the  general  table  in  which 
population  alone  is  given;  but  for  practical  purposes  these 
figures  may  be  accepted  as  sufficiently  accurate  to  indicate 
the  relative  strength  of  the  religious  divisions  of  the  people. 
The  small  but  influential  body  known  as  Parsees,  not  given 
in  this  table,  numbers  only  90,000. 


80 


INDIA  AND  MALA  YS1A. 


Ct>apber  VI. 

HINDUISM. 

IT  would  require  a  volume  much  larger  than  this  to  contain 
even  an  abridged  account  of  the  rise,  progress,  and  present 
condition  of  the  gigantic  religious  system  popularly  known 
by  the  name  of  Hinduism.  It  would  require,  for  instance,  a 
history  dating  back  at  least  three  thousand  years,  a  sketch  of 
a  series  of  philosophical  systems  which  touch  at  many  points 
the  speculations  of  many  of  the  ablest  thinkers  of  ancient  and 
modern  times,  of  a  ritualism  more  elaborate  than  that  of  the 
Levites,  of  a  social  system  the  most  complex  and  cumbersome 
ever  known,  and  of  a  polytheism  which  touches  at  one  or 
more  points  every  other  form  of  polytheism  known  among 
men.  Sir  Monier  Williams  very  truthfully  remarks  that  "no 
description  of  Hinduism  can  be  exhaustive  which  does  not 
touch  on  almost  every  religious  and  philosophical  idea  that 
the  world  has  ever  known."  No  elaborate  description  of 
such  a  religion  can  be  attempted  in  the  present  volume,  writ- 
ten as  it  is  for  the  special  purpose  of  putting  the  India  of  to- 
day before  the  American  Christian  public ;  hence  I  shall  only 
speak  briefly  of  that  religious  system  called  Hinduism,  which 
the  missionary  encounters  when  he  begins  his  work  in  India. 
In  the  first  place,  the  missionary,  on  his  arrival,  is  puzzled 
and  disappointed.  He  does  not  find  the  Hinduism  of  which 
he  has  read ;  and  perhaps  for  years  he  struggles  in  vain  to  get  a 
clear  idea  of  the  religion  of  the  people  among  whom  he  lives. 
Very  few  of  them,  even  of  the  more  intelligent,  can  give  him 
much  light.  They  are  accustomed  to  accept  life,  with  all  its 
incidents,  as  they  find  it,  and  never  pause  to  ask  the  reason 
why,  unless  when  some  new  course  of  action  is  preseuted  to 

83 


84  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

them.  They  are  found  worshiping  one  idol  to-day,  and 
another  to-morrow;  attending  one  festival  this  week,  and 
another  of  a  very  different  character  a  month  or  two  hence, 
without  clearly  understanding  why  they  go  to  one  or  the 
other,  or  what  the  original  character  or  ultimate  purpose 
of  either  festival  is.  The  idea  of  systematic  religious  truth 
is  as  foreign  to  their  minds  as  it  is  to  the  outward  faith 
which  they  profess  by  word  and  worship.  As  often  as  the 
missionary  tries  to  reduce  what  he  sees  before  him  to  some 
kind  of  order,  he  loses  himself  in  interminable  mazes  of 
sacred  writings,  popular  tradition,  and  outward  forms  of  wor- 
ship, which  baffle  all  his  attempts  to  reduce  them  to  intelli- 
gible order.  I  can  not  do  better  than  to  quote  again  from 
Sir  Monier  Williams : 

"Starting  from  the  Veda,  Hinduism  has  ended  in  embracing 
something  from  all  religions,  and  in  presenting  phases  suited  to  all 
minds.  It  is  all-tolerant,  all-compliant,  all-comprehensive,  all-absorbing. 
It  has  its  spiritual  and  its  material  aspect,  its  esoteric  and  exoteric,  its 
subjective  and  objective,  its  rational  and  irrational,  its  pure  and  its 
impure.  It  may  be  compared  to  a  huge  polygon,  or  irregular  multi- 
lateral figure.  It  has  one  side  for  the  practical,  another  for  the  se- 
verely moral,  another  for  the  devotional  and  imaginative,  another  for 
the  sensuous  and  sensual,  and  another  for  the  philosophical  and  spec- 
ulative. Those  who  rest  in  ceremonial  observances  find  it  all-suffi- 
cient; those  who  deny  the  efficacy  of  works,  and  make  faith  the  one 
requisite,  need  not  wander  from  its  pale;  those  who  are  addicted  to 
sensual  objects  may  have  their  tastes  gratified;  those  who  delight  in 
meditating  on  the  nature  of  God  and  man,  the  relation  of  matter 
and  spirit,  the  mystery  of  separate  existence,  and  the  origin  of  evil, 
may  here  indulge  their  love  of  speculation.  And  this  capacity  for 
almost  endless  expansion  causes  almost  endless  sectarian  divisions, 
even  among  the  followers  of  any  particular  line  of  doctrine." 

It  is  usual  to  explain  the  present  extraordinary  compre- 
hensiveness of  Hinduism  by  beginning  with  the  ancient 
Vedas,  and  tracing  up  to  the  present  day  the  gradual  devel- 
opment of  the  system  which  now  admits  without  challenge 
all  truths  and  all  errors,  all  virtues  and  all  vices,  and  only 


HINDUISM.  85 

insists  that  all  shall  wear  its  brand.  But  it  is  not  strictly 
correct  to  speak  of  the  Vedas  as  in  any  proper  sense  belong- 
ing to  Hinduism.  Of  the  Vedic  religion  it  can  only  be  said 
that  it  was  once  professed  by  the  ancestors  of  the  present 
Hindus,  and  that  reformers  in  the  present  time  try  in  vain 
to  draw  the  popular  mind  back  again  to  what  they  believe  a 
purer  collection  of  sacred  books  than  those  of  more  recent 
date.  For  many  years — no  one  knows  how  many — the  an- 
cient Aryans,  with  a  more  or  less  distinct  recognition  of  one 
Supreme  Deity,  worshiped  the  chief  powers  of  nature,  and 
maintained  and  lived  a  simple,  patriarchal  kind  of  life. 
At  a  later  period,  a  class  of  priests  make  their  appearance 
among  them,  to  whom,  in  due  time,  the  name  of  Brahman 
is  assigned.  It  is  not  clearly  known,  and  probably  never  will 
be  known,  how  these  priests  originated.  We  only  know  that 
at  an  early  period  the  Brahman  is  found  in  a  prominent 
place,  and  persistently  pushing  his  way,  not  only  to  a  recog- 
nized position  as  a  religious  teacher,  but  to  other  posts  ot 
authority  wherever  an  opportunity  was  offered  him.  In  the 
course  of  long  years  the  well-known  system  of  caste  grew 
up,  and  the  Brahrnau  was  found  at  the  head  of  the  social 
scale.  The  soldier  naturally  took  the  second  place,  and  at 
certain  periods  it  would  seem,  from  references  in  the  sacred 
books,  that  he  even  compelled  the  Brahman  to  recognize  his 
superiority.  The  third  caste,  which  used  to  be  stated  in  all 
books  on  India  as  that  of  the  merchants,  was  really  the 
farmer  class,  which,  in  time,  was  made  to  include  the  simple 
traders  of  early  times ;  while  a  large  class  called  Sudras,  or 
servants,  who  were  held  in  utter  subjection,  were  probably 
the  descendants  of  conquered  tribes,  who  were  incorporated 
among  the  Aryan  settlers,  and  permitted  to  live  very  much 
as  the  Gibeonites  of  old  were  granted  a  precarious  existence 
among  the  ancient  Hebrews.  The  evil  principle  of  caste  was 
incorporated  into  this  first  division;  but  in  the  nature  of 
the  case  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  have  preserved 
this  fourfold  division  unbroken  through  many  generations. 


86  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Alliances — whether  irregular  or  with  the  sanction  of  marriage, 
we  can  not  trll — were  undoubtedly  formed,  from  time  to  time, 
between  higher  castes  and  lower;  and  these,  each  in  its  turn, 
gave  rise  to  new  castes,  until,  instead  of  the  original  four,  it 
would  now  be  impossible  to  state  even  approximately  how 
many  castes  there  are  in  India.  While  the  ancient  chief  di- 
visions remain,  each  in  its  turn  has  been  divided  and  subdi- 
vided, while  others,  again,  from  the  great  masses  of  outlying 
people,  have  been  incorporated  into  the  Hindu  system,  so 
that  now  it  would  be  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  there  are 
many  thousands  of  Hindu  castes. 

The  rise  of  caste  among  the  Hindus  marks  a  most  im- 
portant point  in  the  development  of  the  system.  It  is  the 
one  vital  issue  which  the  Hindus  never  lose  sight  of,  and 
meets  the  missionary  everywhere.  The  admission  of  a  new 
caste  into  the  general  community  does  not  in  any  way  affect 
those  already  in  existence.  It  merely  means  that  a  certain 
number  of  persons,  for  reasons  satisfactory  to  themselves, 
have  united  in  a  new  brotherhood,  or  social  guild,  and  sub- 
jected themselves  to  the  restraints  which  the  general  caste 
system  imposes.  So  long  as  they  do  this  of  their  own  accord, 
no  one  cares,  and  the  general  body  of  Hindus  is  in  no  wise 
affected  by  their  action.  But  if  they  attempt  to  form  such  an 
organization,  and  at  the  same  time  ignore  caste  altogether,  it 
becomes  a  very  different  case,  and  by  that  one  act  they  put 
themselves  utterly  without  the  pale  of  the  general  Hindu 
community.  In  like  manner,  Brahmanism  has  survived  all 
the  changes  which,  in  the  course  of  hundreds  and  even  thou- 
sands of  years,  have  passed  over  the  people,  and  maintains  its 
position  as  rigidly  as  ever.  These  two  points  are  cardinal  to 
the  system — a  recognition  of  caste,  and  a  recognition  of  Brah- 
mauism.  No  man  can  be  orthodox,  in  the  popular  sense  of 
the  word,  and  retain  an  unchallenged  position  in  the  Hindu 
community,  who  refuses  to  respect  the  Brahman,  or  to  regard 
the  sanctions  of  caste. 

Some  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  Buddhism  took 


HINDUISM.  87 

its  rise  in  India,  at  first  in  the  guise  of  a  great  relig- 
ious reform.  It  has  been  well  pointed  out  that  it  was,  in 
reality,  a  great  Hindu  heresy.  It  affected  most  profoundly 
the  development  of  Hinduism  for  a  long  period,  and  in  some 
parts  of  the  country  seemed  to  have  well-nigh  overthrown  it. 
When,  however,  after  many  centuries  of  varied  fortunes,  Hin- 
duism permanently  gained  the  ascendency,  it  won,  and  finally 
retained  the  lead,  by  forming  what  would  seem  to  have  been 
almost  an  avowed  alliance  with  every  form  of  gross  idolatry 
with  which  India  was  at  that  time  filled.  The  popular  tra- 
ditions and  superstitions  of  the  people  were  incorporated 
without  hesitation  into  the  Hindu  system,  and  in  this  way 
many  of  the  most  popular  deities  in  the  modern  Hindu  pan- 
theon were  really  borrowed  from  the  ignorant  and  gross  idol- 
aters of  the  country,  who  had  been  utterly  despised  by  the 
Brahmans  in  their  more  palmy  days.  It  will  thus  be  seen 
that  the  Hinduism  of  to-day  is  comparatively  a  modern  re- 
ligion. It  is  but  remotely  connected  with  the  ancient  Vedic 
religion,  and  in  many  of  its  forms  could  not  be  traced  back 
even  to  the  Brahmauic  period. 

In  one  of  the  quotations  given  above,  Hinduism  is  spoken 
of  as  a  tolerant  religion.  This  statement,  however,  needs  to 
be  qualified.  The  missionary,  when  he  begins  his  work  in 
India,  does  not  find  Hinduism  by  any  means  a  tolerant  re- 
ligion, and  is  bewildered  for  a  time  when  he  is  told  that  it  is 
more  tolerant  than  Christianity.  Many  superficial  writers  in 
Christian  lands  play  with  the  words  "  tolerant "  and  "  toler- 
ation "  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  it  appear  that  Christian- 
ity is  the  most  intolerant  system  in  the  world ;  but,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  it  is  the  only  religion  that  really  understands  the 
principle  of  true  toleration.  The  Hindu,  when  he  speaks  of 
toleration,  means  that  if  you  let  him  alone  he  will  let  you 
alone;  that  if  you  will  let  him  maintain  his  religion  in  peace, 
and  not  attempt  to  teach  his  boys  any  other  religious  truths 
than  those  which  were  known  to  his  ancestors,  he  will  let 
your  boys  alone,  and  not  attempt  to  proselyte  them.  He 


88  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

assumes,  as  an  axiom  never  to  be  questioned,  that  all  people  are 
to  remain  in  the  religious  household  in  which  they  are  born; 
and  very  graciously  consents  to  let  all  other  people  live  in 
the  same  peace  which  he  enjoys,  so  long  as  there  is  a  truce  to 
religious  proselytism.  Mohammedans,  in  like  manner,  will 
often  concede  as  much.  If  it  is  distinctly  understood  that  no 
Mohammedan  is  to  be  allowed  to  change  his  faith,  they  are 
often  willing  to  allow  Christians  all  manner  of  privileges,  and 
have  often  been  applauded  in  public  magazines  for  their  ex- 
traordinary toleration.  But  the  true  test  to  apply  to  a  Mo- 
hammedan or  to  a  Hindu  is  for  one  of  his  sons  to  venture  to 
take  the  liberty  of  changing  his  religious  views.  In  a  second 
the  toleration  of  the  father  is  at  an  end.  He  understands 
nothing  whatever  about  the  freedom  of  the  conscience  or  the 
religious  rights  of  the  individual.  Hence  the  Hindu  has  ad- 
mitted one  horrible  and  revolting  form  of  idolatry  after 
another  into  his  system,  but  always  with  the  understanding 
that  there  is  to  be  no  proselytism,  and  that  the  people  thus 
incorporated  into  the  Hindu  body  politic  will  never  fail  to 
maintain  rigidly  the  standard  rules  of  caste,  by  which  they 
bind  themselves  not  to  eat,  or  drink,  or  smoke,  or  intermarry 
with  people  of  other  castes,  and  also  to  retain  and  manifest  a 
proper  respect  for  the  omnipresent  Brahman.  This  is  not  tol- 
eration in  any  proper  sense  of  the  word,  as  the  reader  can 
easily  see. 

Modern  Hinduism,  then,  is  simply  a  religious  name  which 
is  applied  to  all  the  forms  of  idolatry  which  were  found  in 
India  during  the  two  or  three  centuries  following  the  fall  of 
Buddhism,  all  incorporated  together  under  a  common  name, 
and  subjected  to  the  rules  of  caste,  and  to  an  outward  respect 
for  the  authority  of  the  Brahmans  as  the  religious  leaders  of 
the  community.  It  is  a  system  which  necessarily  includes 
some  very  evil  doctrines  and  practices,  accepting,  as  it  unhes- 
itatingly does,  men  who  believe  all  possible  forms  of  truth  or 
error,  as  the  case  may  be.  The  atheist  and  the  fetich  wor- 
shiper are  equally  at  home  in  a  system  which  makes  every- 


HINDUISM.  89 

thing  of  outward  conformity  to  artificial  tests,  and  cares 
nothing  for  individual  beliefs  or  practice.  Even  reformed 
sects,  which  originally  started  in  direct  opposition  to  caste 
and  Brahman  domination,  have  not  been  able  to  separate 
themselves  wholly  from  the  Hindu  community,  because  they 
have  not  been  brave  enough  to  take  a  position  of  absolute  in- 
dependence. 

The  reader  can  see  at  a  glance  how  these  facts  must  affect 
the  position  of  the  Christian  missionary.  He  comes  to  India 
to  teach  certain  absolute  truths,  and  he  has  learned  to 
reverence  truth  to  such  a  degree  that  he  can  not  for  a  mo- 
ment compromise  with  error;  nor  can  he  tolerate  error,  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word.  He  is  willing  to  tolerate  the  vic- 
tim of  error,  and  to  allow  him  to  teach  his  error  with  all 
freedom;  but  he  can  not  condone  it,  or  accept  it  as  prac- 
tically equal  to  that  which  he  regards  as  truth,  but  must  op- 
pose it,  and  expose  it,  by  turning  in  the  light  of  God's  word 
upon  it,  so  that  its  hideous  outlines  may  be  distinctly  seen,  and 
the  people  persuaded  to  forsake  it.  In  like  manner  he  sees 
at  a  glance  that  no  man  can  be,  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word,  a  man,  in  the  free  use  of  his  mind  and  in  free  obedi- 
ence to  his  conscience,  unless  he  can  be  induced  to  trample 
on  the  system  of  caste.  He  also  sees  that  Brahman  suprem- 
acy is  a  stifling,  crushing  burden,  which  rests  upon  the  people, 
and  must  be  thrown  off  before  there  can  be  any  real  progress 
toward  a  better  religious  and  social  existence  in  the  land. 
The  result  is,  that  the  Hindu  almost  instinctively  recognizes 
the  missionary  at  first  as  a  foe,  and  always  as  a  religious  op- 
ponent; and  for  a  long  time  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  com- 
prehend how  a  man  can  be  opposed  to  caste  and  to  Brahman 
domination,  and  yet  be  tolerant  of  the  existence  of  both.  In 
other  words,  the  Hindu  assumes  that  the  missionary  must  use 
unfair  means  of  some  kind  in  the  prosecution  of  his  mission; 
and  as  he  has  never  in  his  life  acted  on  the  principle  of  per- 
fect religious  freedom,  he  is  incapable  of 'understanding  what 
the  missionary  means  when  he  says  he  will  leave  the  whole 


90  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

matter  to  the  free  choice  of  the  old  and  young  whom  he 
teaches.  To  propose  to  a  Hindu  that  men  are  to  be  allowed 
to  choose  for  themselves,  and  that  no  man  is  to  interfere 
with  them  when  they  make  their  choice,  is  to  introduce  a 
rule  which  seems  to  him  a  thousand  years  ahead  of  the  age. 
He  can  not  understand  it,  and  for  many  years  the  missionary 
has  patiently  to  bide  his  time,  until  one  illusion  after 
another  passes  away,  as  the  people  begin  to  turn  to  Chris- 
tianity and  exercise  the  freedom  which  God,  in  his  provi- 
dence, has  placed  within  their  reach. 

While  the  utmost  diversity  of  opinion  prevails  among  the 
Hindus,  there  is  a  very  general  agreement  among  them  in 
relation  to  a  few  most  important  doctrines,  all  of  which  are 
founded  upon  radical  error.  With  very  few  exceptions,  they 
all  believe  in  the  transmigration  of  the  soul  after  death. 
The  men  of  to-day  have  lived  before,  either  in  a  higher  or 
lowrer  state,  and  they  will  live  again  after  death.  The  bad 
man  will  be  born  again  in  a  degraded  form,  and  thus  pun- 
ished for  his  sins,  while  the  good  man  will  be  born  with  a 
nobler  nature,  and  thus  rewarded.  The  serpent  or  the  jackal 
of  to-day  may  have  been  a  human  being  ages  ago,  and  is  now 
undergoing  punishment  for  past  sins.  The  Christian  idea  of 
heaven  and  hell  is  hardly  perceived  by  the  Hindu.  He,  too, 
believes  in  a  heaven  and  a  hell,  but  each  is  a  mere  episode 
in  the  long  and  dreary  progress  of  the  soul  towards  its  ulti- 
mate destiny.  Neither  is  final,  and  not  every  soul  is  des- 
tined to  enjoy  or  suffer  the  one  or  the  other.  The  missionary 
needs  to  understand  this  well,  else  much  of  his  gospel  will  be 
misunderstood.  The  Rev.  S.  Knowles,  of  Oudh,  said,  some 
years  ago,  that  after  many  years  of  preaching  to  the  Hindus 
he  was  finally  surprised  to  discover  that  he  was  not  under- 
stood by  them  at  this  point,  and  that  a  new  interest  was  at 
once  evoked  when  he  began  to  proclaim  that  Jesus  Christ,  at 
a  single  stroke,  could  deliver  the  soul  from  all  its  wander- 
ings, and  give  it  rest  and  peace  in  God.  To  hold  out  to  a 
Hindu  the  hope  of  escape  from  future  transmigration,  is  very 


HINDUISM.  91 

much  the  same  as  to  offer  the  hope  of  deliverance  from  a 
future  hell,  aud  eternal  felicity  in  heaven,  to  one  accustomed 
to  Western  modes  of  thought. 

Another  pernicious  error  found  everywhere  among  the 
Hindus  is,  that  the  union  of  the  soul  with  the  body  is  neces- 
sarily evil,  and  the  source  of  constant  evil  to  every  one. 
This  is  true  of  every  such  union — that  is,  of  every  birth  in 
the  present  and  coming  ages.  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  while 
such  an  opinion  would  be  instantly  denied  by  every  intelli- 
gent person  in  England  or  America  who  bears  the  Christian 
name,  yet,  practically,  very  many  people  seem  to  assume  that 
this  doctrine  is  true.  Practically,  very  many  persons,  if  not 
indeed  a  large  majority,  assume  that  the  evil  of  life  in  the 
present  world  can  be  traced  to  our  union  with  a  material 
body.  The  thought  is  not  thus  expressed,  but  this  is  the 
practical  outcome.  Every  one  hopes  to  be  all  right  when  he 
gets  out  of  this  world,  assuming  that  the  body  which  con- 
nects him  with  this  world  is  the  connecting  link  between  him 
and  all  his  miseries,  and  forgetting  that  good  or  evil  is  found 
in  ourselves,  and  not  in  the  house  of  clay  in  which,  for  a 
time,  we  chance  to  dwell.  In  India,  however,  the  universal 
acceptance  of  this  religious  tenet  leads  to  all  manner  of  mis- 
taken notions  and  practices.  The  body  is  regarded  as  an 
enemy,  and  treated  accordingly.  If  enfeebled  by  fasting, 
punished  by  painful  austerities,  and  its  dissolution  hastened 
by  neglect,  it  is  all,  in  the  eyes  of  the  pious  Hindu,  working 
out  the  best  interest  of  the  individual.  This  also  tends 
powerfully  to  support  the  fatalism  spoken  of  in  a  previous 
chapter,  naturally  leading  the  individual  to  assume  that  while 
in  the  body  he  can  not  help  himself,  and  must  accept  the  evil 
that  comes  to  him  as  a  part  of  his  inevitable  fate. 

Hinduism  is  well  known  in  Western  lands  for  its  doctrine 
of  incarnations — a  doctrine  which  very  naturally  has  created 
no  little  interest  in  the  minds  of  Christians,  who  recognize  the 
absolute  importance  of  a  divine  incarnation  to  their  own  sys- 
tem. Thus  far,  however,  students  of  Indian  mythology  have 


92  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

not  found  very  much  in  the  Hindu  doctrine  of  special  value 
to  Christian  theologians.  The  incarnations  of  Vishnu  are 
ten  in  number,  nine  of  which  have  already  taken  place, 
while  the  tenth  is  believed  to  be  still  future.  These  incar- 
nations are  now  admitted  by  nearly  all  Indian  students  to 
have  been  comparatively  modern,  and  little  trace  of  the  doc- 
trine is  found  in  the  more  ancient  Hindu  writings.  Various 
theories  have  been  proposed  to  account  for  the  origin  of  such 
a  belief,  and  for  the  free  use  that  has  been  made  of  it  in  the 
domain  of  mythology;  but  thus  far  conjecture  is  the  only  aid 
which  the  student  finds  when  searching  for  the  rise  and 
progress  of  this  now  prominent  and  very  popular  belief.  ^Ve 
only  know  that  in  other  countries  than  India  and  Judsea, 
a  similar  belief  has  often  been  'entertained,  and  may  very 
easily  assume  that  a  felt  want  of  the  soul  found  expression 
in  some  past  age  of  Hinduism,  probably  by  the  aid  of  one  of 
the  many  devotional  thinkers,  or  speculators,  who  from  time 
to  time,  in  past  ages,  appeared  in  Hindu  society,  and  gave 
new  turns  to  religious  thought  and  worship.  The  coming 
incarnation,  which  is  to  be  the  last  of  the  series,  is  popularly 
known  in  North  India  as  the  "  sinless  incarnation."  He  is 
announced  to  appear  in  the  city  of  Sambhal,  in  Rohilkhand, 
although  in  other  parts  of  India  this  tradition  does  not  seem 
to  be  known,  or  at  least  not  generally  accepted.  All  agree, 
however,  that  when  he  comes  he  is  to  put  an  end  to  the 
present  age,  destroy  the  wicked,  and  establish  righteousness 
upon  the  earth.  All  creation  is  to  be  renewed,  and  the  world 
of  the  future  is  to  be  one  of  beauty  and  purity  and  joy. 
Some  missionaries  and  many  native  preachers  make  much  use 
of  this  tradition  by  proclaiming  that  the  sinless  incarnation 
has  already  come;  and  in  some  cases  they  succeed  in  not  only 
attracting  hearers,  but  stirring  up  a  very  lively  spirit  of  in- 
quiry concerning  the  character  and  history  of  the  great  in- 
carnation of  the  Christians. 

The  well-known  belief  of  the  Hindus  in  a  sacred  Triad, 
known  as  Brahma  the  Creator,  Vishnu  the  Preserver,  and 


HINDUISM.  93 

Shiva  the  Destroyer,  has  led  many  to  suppose  that  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of  a  Divine  Trinity  is  faintly  reflected  in  this 
feature  of  Hinduism;  but  a  close  examination  of  the  Hindu 
system  quickly  dispels  this  idea.  There  is  no  real  unity  in  the 
Hindu  trinity.  It  is  a  triad,  but  not  a  trinity.  Vishnu  and 
Shiva  are  often  represented  as  antagonistic,  and  bitter,  long- 
standing feuds  have  often  occurred  between  the  votaries  of  the 
two  deities.  It  is  very  true  that  in  popular  phrase,  and  ac- 
cording to  philosophic  tradition,  the  three  deities  are  spoken 
of  as  Trimurti — that  is,  three-formed,  or  triply  manifested — 
but  in  the  strife  of  rival  sects  this  idea  is  utterly  lost.  No  one 
thinks  of  Vishnu  and  Shiva  as  standing  in  any  more  special 
relation  to  one  another  than  Neptune  and  Pluto  occupied  in 
classic  mythology.  The  idea  of  a  supreme  Triad  was  evidently 
evolved  somewhat  slowly,  and  certainly  seems  to  illustrate  the 
necessity  for  such  a  manifestation  of  the  invisible  God  as  we 
find  in  the  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  revealed  in  the  Bible ;  but 
all  analogy  ceases  at  the  point  of  origin  of  the  Hindu  deities. 
Brahma,  the  so-called  Creator,  stands  wholly  in  the  back- 
ground in  the  popular  mind,  and  is  said  to  have  only  one 
temple  in  all  India.  He  is  seldom  worshiped,  and  has  but 
few  avowed  followers.  Vishnu,  the  Preserver,  is  brought 
into  great  prominence  by  his  numerous  incarnations,  and  is 
probably  the  most  popular  member  of  the  Triad.  Shiva, 
however,  is  the  most  universally  revered,  probably  owing  to 
the  fact  that  in  some  of  his  forms  he  becomes  an  object  of 
terror  to  his  votaries,  and  fear,  added  to  superstition,  is  a 
great  motive  power  in  the  Hindu  mind.  In  India  the  "  De- 
stroyer "  is  not  known  by  the  name  Shiva.  His  earlier  name 
was  Rudra,  who  was  a  veritable  destroyer ;  but  in  time  he 
became  known  in  another  form  and  with  another  name — 
Shiva,  the  Reproducer — thus  taking  up,  in  part  at  least,  the 
work  which  originally  had  been  assigned  to  Brahma.  As 
Shiva,  he  restored  what  he,  as  Rudra,  had  destroyed.  Next 
he  assumed  the  form  of  a  great  ascetic,  with  a  naked  body 
smeared  with  ashes,  wearing  matted  hair,  and  forming  a 


94  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

repulsive  object,  which  is  faithfully  imitated  by  multitudes  of 
devotees  to  the  present  day.  A  fourth  form,  supposed  to  be 
of  modern  origin,  is  that  of  a  malignant  destroyer — in  fact,  a 
demon  rather  than  a  god.  In  this  character  he  bears  the 
name  of  Bhairava,  and  wears  garlands  of  serpents  and  a 
string  of  skulls  for  a  necklace,  and  in  every  respect  forms  as 
repulsive  and  malignant  a  character  as  the  active  Oriental 
imagination  can  depict.  He  appears  in  still  another  charac- 
ter, somewhat  the  reverse  of  the  last,  as  a  mountain  god, 
fond  of  pleasure,  devoted  to  dancing  and  drinking,  and  sur- 
rounded by  troups  of  dwarfs.  In  this  last  character  his  wor- 
ship is  the  most  degrading  and  immoral  known  in  India. 
The  wife  of  Shiva  in  his  various  characters  is  known  by  dif- 
ferent names,  the  most  popular  of  which  is  Kali.  In  this 
character  she  excels  her  husband  in  her  love  of  wanton  de-. 
struction,  and  her  image  is  perhaps  as  revolting  an  object  of 
worship  as  can  be  found  anywhere  in  the  world.  It  so  hap- 
pens that  the  great  Hindu  temple  in  the  suburbs  of  Calcutta, 
to  which  all  travelers  are  conducted,  is  devoted  to  the  wor- 
ship of  this  goddess,  and  hence  most  persons  who  are  permit- 
ted to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  disgusting  image  go  away  writh 
a  much  more  unfavorable  idea  of  Hinduism  than  a  wider 
acquaintance  with  the  system  would  give  them.  At  her  best, 
however,  the  consort  of  Shiva  is  a  wretched  deity,  and  no 
one  who  comprehends  even  faintly  the  blighting  effect  upon 
the  heart  and  mind  which  the  adoration  of  such  an  object 
must  cause,  can  think  with  indifference  of  the  manner  in 
which  millions  prostrate  themselves  before  this  revolting 
object. 

The  successive  changes  of  character  given  to  the  third 
member  of  the  Triad  illustrates  in  a  striking  way  the  rapid 
declension  of  modern  Hinduism.  The  latest  manifestation  ot 
Shiva  is  the  lowest  and  most  degrading.  The  same  remark  is 
true,  in  a  general  way,  of  popular  Hinduism  everywhere.  Its 
latest  phases  are  its  worst.  If  any  process  of  evolution  has  at- 
tended its  progress,  it  has  been  an  evolution  of  evil,  and  not  of 


HINDUISM.  95 

good.  The  ancient  Aryans,  in  their  original  home  in  Central 
Asia,  no  doubt  held  in  common  with  their  brethren  who  sub- 
sequently became  the  Persians  of  history,  a  belief  in  one  Su- 
preme Being,  the  Creator  and  Lord  of  all  men.  It  seems 
very  probable  that  the  disruption  which  originally  occurred 
between  these  two  branches  of  the  great  Aryan  family  was 
over  a  religious  question.  The  Indian  Aryans  made  their 
first  downward  step  by  adopting  certain  of  the  great  powers 
of  nature  as  objects  of  veneration.  From  that  point  on,  their 
religious  progress  has  been  steadily  downward,  until  now  the 
cow  is  more  venerated  than  the  ancient  god  of  storms,  and  the 
serpent — especially  the  cobra — held  more  sacred  than  any  un- 
seen being  whatever.  The  monkey  is  almost  equally  an  ob- 
ject of  veneration,  while  the  elephant  and  the  peacock,  and  a 
hundred  other  creatures  which  might  be  named,  are  every- 
where recognized  as  objects  worthy  of  the  adoration  of  the 
human  heart.  The  cow  is  more  sacred  to  the  ordinary 
Hindu  than  most  men  of  his  own  race,  and  always  much 
more  sacred  than  persons  of  the  lower  castes.  To  kill  an 
out-caste  is  a  venial  offense  in  comparison  with  killing  a  cow; 
and  to  such  an  extreme  do  they  carry  the  notion  of  the  guilt 
of  cow-killing  that  I  once  knew  a  poor  peasant  to  be  fined 
twenty  dollars  because  one  of  his  cows  chanced  to  fall  over  a 
precipice,  and  died  from  the  effects  of  the  fall.  His  fellow- 
castemen  assembled,  gravely  tried  the  case,  and  inflicted  what 
was  to  the  poor  man  a  very  heavy  fine,  which  they  proceeded 
to  collect  on  the  spot. 

Hinduism,  as  a  religion,  can  not  make  progress  in  any 
good  direction,  and  contains  in  itself  many  elements  of  decay 
and  death.  But  it  is  by  no  means  near  its  end.  New  temples 
are  built  every  year,  and  many  signs  of  activity,  if  not  of  vi- 
tality, appear  from  time  to  time  among  its  votaries;  but  none 
the  less,  Hinduism  is  in  a  state  of  hopeless  decline.  It  will 
linger  long  in  remote  districts,  and  cling  desperately  to  its 
historic  shrines;  its  traditions  will  be  fondly  cherished  by  the 
multitude ;  and  long  after  it  has  ceased  to  be  the  acknowledged 


96  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

faith  of  the  people  of  India,  its  spirit  will  appear  and  reap- 
pear in  a  thousand  forms  among  the  contending  forces  which 
a  new  era  and  a  new  civilization  will  bring  upon  the  stage 
of  popular  life.  No  religion  was  ever  rooted  so  deeply  in  the 
history,  traditions,  social  life,  and  prejudices  of  any  people  as 
Hinduism  is  among  the  people  of  India ;  and  it  will  be  strange 
indeed  if  it  does  not  affect  in  many  ways  and  for  many  gen- 
erations the  Christianity  which  is  soon  to  supplant  it. 


Chapter   VII. 

BUDDHISM. 

is  an  Indian  religion,  although  it  is  no 
J— )  longer  a  religion  in  India.  A  few  Buddhists  are  found 
in  some  of  the  districts  bordering  on  Thibet,  and  a  few  Bur- 
mese and  Chinese  Buddhists  have  settled  in  Calcutta;  but 
aside  from  these,  scarcely  any  one  bearing  the  name  of  Bud- 
dhist can  be  found  in  India  proper.  I  might  therefore  well 
pass  over  the  subject  of  Buddhism  in  writing  of  the  India  of 
the  present  day;  but  such  an  extraordinary  interest  in  every- 
thing pertaining  to  Buddhism  and  its  founder  has  been  ex- 
cited in  Western  lands,  especially  since  the  publication  of  Sir 
Edwin  Arnold's  "  Light  of  Asia,"  that  probably  no  book  on 
India  would  be  considered  complete  which  wholly  omitted 
the  subject.  It  has  been  well  said  that  the  interest  created 
in  certain  circles  in  America  by  Sir  Edwin  Arnold's  remark- 
able book  amounted  almost  to  a  craze.  Many  intelligent 
persons  were  led  to  form  exaggerated  notions  of  the  charac- 
ter of  Gautama,  of  the  reforms  inaugurated  by  him,  and  of 
his  influence  upon  the  Asiatic  mind.  It  suited  the  temper  of 
the  times  to  believe  that  Christianity  was  only  one  of  several 
Asiatic  forms  of  faith,  and  less  effective  on  its  own  soil  than 
the  system  of  truth  founded  by  the  great  Indian  reformer. 
A  similar  craze  took  possession  of  many  minds  above  a  gen- 
eration earlier,  when  the  popular  translations  of  the  Sanskrit 
sacred  books  began  to  appear.  It  was  then  supposed,  if  not 
hoped,  by  many,  that  a  rich  mine  of  sacred  truths  was  about 
to  be  uncovered,  and  that  the  Bible  would  no  longer  retain  its 
prominence,  even  in  Christian  lauds.  That  dream  has  long 
since  vanished,  and  the  present  illusion  will  disappear  in  like 

7  97 


98  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSTA. 

manner.  The  founder  of  Buddhism  was  a  great  man,  and 
the  religion  which  grew  out  of  his  teachings  forms  an  in- 
teresting subject  of  study;  but  he  shed  little  light  upon 
the  Asiatic  world,  and  his  religious  system  has  proved  a 
gigantic  failure. 

Gautama,  the  founder  of  Buddhism,  was  born  about  500 
years  before  Christ.  His  father  was  a  prince  of  a  tribe  of  people 
called  Sakyas;  and  hence  the  name  Sakya  Muni,  by  which  he, 
is  sometimes  popularly  known,  means  nothing  more  than  the 
Sakya  sage.  The  young  prince  must  have  been  a  very  gifted 
youth,  and  no  doubt  received  the  best  culture  which  that  re- 
mote age  afforded.  He  grew  up  as  a  Hindu,  and  as  he  was 
a  man  of  a  marked  religious  temperament,  no  doubt  made 
himself  well  acquainted  with  the  prevailing  Hindu  doctrines 
and  ceremonies  of  the  period.  Indeed,  he  never  renounced 
Hinduism  ;  although  he  at  times  defied  many  of  its  more  im- 
portant tenets,  and  he  probably  died  unconscious  of  the  fact 
that  he  was  to  figure  in  history  as  the  founder  of  a  religion 
in  many  respects  diametrically  opposed  to  that  which  he 
professed.  He  must  have  been  a  man  of  very  marked  ability. 
All  such  founders  of  great  movements  may  be  accepted  without 
question  as  natural  leaders  of  their  race.  Gautama  grew  up 
to  manhood  a  popular,  happy,  and  hopeful  young  prince.  He 
had  married  according  to  Hindu  custom,  and  had  been  for- 
tunate in  the  character  of  the  wife  selected  for  him,  and  was 
also  the  happy  father  of  a  promising  son.  His  career,  how- 
ever, as  a  prince  was  destined  to  come  to  an  abrupt  and 
somewhat  rude  termination.  Tradition  says  that  his  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  sights  of  suffering  and  death  around 
him;  and  when  all  his  questionings  concerning  the  origin  or 
possible  termination  of  the  evils  of  the  present  life  failed  to 
find  any  satisfactory  answer,  he  determined  to  forsake  a  life 
which  was  sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  bring  him  many  troubles, 
and  which  offered  in  return  very  little  which  he  could  prize. 
Trained  as  a  Hindu,  he  naturally  thought  that  the  first  and 
only  proper  step  for  him  to  take  was  to  forsake  the  life 


BUDDHISM.  99 

which  he  was  then  leading,  and  separate  himself  from  his 
own  kind. 

A  touching  story  is  told  of  the  manner  in  which  he  left 
his  sleeping  wife  and  babe  in  the  still  hours  of  the  night,  and 
stole  away  from  his  palace  and  from  all  the  gilded  glory  of 
ihis  royal  life,  to  seek  for  light  and  peace  for  his  troubled 
mind.  He  rode  for  some  distance  upon  his  own  favorite 
horse,  then  dismounted  and  sent  him  back,  and  was  left  en- 
tirely alone.  Seeing  a  mendicant  passing  along  the  road,  he 
exchanged  clothes  with  him,  and  thenceforth  began  a  long 
and  painful  course  of  life  as  a  religious  devotee.  He  first 
placed  himself  under  the  tuition  of  two  Brahmans,  who  at- 
tempted to  teach  him,  according  to  their  own  dreamy  notions, 
certain  pantheistic  tenets  which  they  thought  ought  to  satisfy 
his  wants.  They  failed,  however,  utterly  and  somewhat 
quickly;  and  the  troubled  youth  next  attempted  to  find  peace 
by  practicing  well-known  austerities,  as  taught  by  the  Brah- 
mans even  of  that  early  period.  Joining  himself  to  five  or 
six  other  devotees,  he  spent  some  time — according  to  most 
authors,  as  much  as  six  years — in  practicing  severe  austerities, 
among  which  fasting  occupied  a  prominent  place.  "Sitting 
down,  with  his  legs  folded  under  him,  on  a  raised  seat,  in  a 
place  unsheltered  from  rain,  wind,  dew,  and  cold,  he  grad- 
ually reduced  his  daily  allowance  of  food  to  a  single  grain  of 
rice;  then,  shutting  his  teeth  and  holding  his  breath,  he  har- 
assed and  macerated  his  body ;  but  all  in  vain."  *  Such  is  the 
description  given  of  the  long-continued  course  of  self-torture 
'pursued  by  this  earnest  man;  and  although  the  description 
must  be  accepted  as  a  little  exaggerated — at  least  in  regard 
to  the  amount  of  his  food — yet  it  is  a  very  accurate  descrip- 
tion of  what  may  be  seen  in  India  at  the  present  day,  in  the 
case  of  thousands  of  earnest  but  misguided  men. 

After  six  years,  however,  of  continuous  effort,  the  un- 
happy man  became  convinced  that  he  was  suffering  in  vain, 


*SirM.  Williams. 


100  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

and  wisely  abandoned  a  course  of  life  which  yielded  him  no 
rest  for  his  troubled  soul.  He  broke  away  from  his  compan- 
ions, and,  removing  to  another  district,  sat  down  under  a  sa- 
cred tree,  called  the  Pipal,  and  still  regarded  as  sacred  all  over 
India  to  the  present  day.  Here  he  entered  upon  a  course  of 
deep  meditation,  by  which  he  hoped  to  attain  mystic  union 
with  the  Deity.  This  was  not  an  original  experiment  of  his 
own,  but,  like  his  previous  efforts,  was  borrowed  from  the 
popular  Hinduism  of  the  day.  This  custom  also  has  sur- 
vived down  to  the  present  time.  It  is  considered  a  work  of 
greatest  possible  merit  to  abstract  the  mind  from  all  sur- 
rounding objects,  and  think  only  of  God,  or  of  some  divine 
being,  and  continue  in  this  state  of  mental  abstraction  as  long 
as  possible.  Minute  directions  are  given  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  this  duty  should  be  performed.  The  devotee  sits 
perfectly  still  on  a  seat  made  from  a  certain  kind  of  sacred 
grass,  and  as  far  as  possible  keeps  his  eyes  fixed  upon  the  tip 
of  his  nose.  No  thought  of  any  external  thing  is  to  be  al- 
lowed to  enter  his  mind.  If  he  can  continue  in  this  state 
long  enough  he  will  attain  to  union,  or  communion,  with  the 
divine  spirit  which  he  seeks.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  by  pursu- 
ing such  a  course  as  this,  certain  devotees  at  the  present  day 
have  the  power  of  throwing  themselves  into  a  kind  of  trance; 
and  it  is  no  wonder  that  those  who  witness  their  procedure 
have  the  utmost  confidence,  not  only  in  the  sincerity  of  the 
devotees,  but  in  the  reality  of  the  communion  of  which  they 
speak.  Those  who  have  given  much  attention  to  the  study 
of  religious  catalepsy  in  its  various  forms  will  not  be  sur- 
prised at  the  statement.  In  times  of  intense  religious  excite- 
ment in  Christian  lands,  instances  are  frequently  seen  of  per- 
sons, with  or  without  any  special  conviction  from  the  Holy 
Spirit,  going  off  into  a  more  or  less  ecstatic  state  of  seeming 
unconsciousness;  and  I  have  known  persons  in  America  who 
had  so  cultivated  this  power  as  to  be  able  to  throw  them- 
selves into  a  trance  state,  almost  in  a  moment,  by  the  mere 
exercise  of  the  will. 


BUDDHISM.  101 

For  some  time  Gautama  pursued  his  meditations  with 
intense  earnestness,  but  with  no  success.  Traditions  tell  of 
the  fierce  temptations  he  endured  while  undergoing  this  pro- 
cess, but  he  held  out  firmly  against  all  feelings  of  discour- 
agement and  all  temptations  to  give  up  the  struggle,  until 
one  bright  morning  he  professed  to  find  sudden  and  complete 
deliverance.  He  spoke  of  the  change  as  if  light  had  dawned 
upon  him,  and  thenceforth  was  called  the  Buddha,  or  the  En- 
lightened. It  is  very  difficult,  however,  to  understand  from 
all  the  traditions  handed  down  by  his  followers  what  the 
character  of  the  change  which  passed  over  him  really  was. 
His  own  explanations  are  exceedingly  obscure;  and  while 
from  this  time  forward  he  pursued  a  fixed  course,  and  taught 
settled  doctrines,  and  was  undoubtedly  delivered  from  some 
of  the  mistaken  notions  which  had  oppressed  him  before,  yet 
it  does  not  appear  that  he  received  anything  like  a  revela- 
tion, or  anything  corresponding  to  a  marked  change  of  char- 
acter. It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  what  really  happened 
to  him  was  one  of  those  singular  forms  of  catalepsy  men- 
tioned above.  The  same  remark  might  be  applied  to  Mo- 
harnmed,  who  undoubtedly  was  familiar  from  time  to  time 
with  an  ecstatic  state  of  the  mind,  which  he  unquestioningly 
accepted  as  a  revelation  from  God.  To  a  man  in  Gautama's 
condition,  worn  out  and  almost  in  despair,  struggling  for 
some  manifestation  in  the  soul,  such  a  condition  of  trance 
would  come  as  a  wonderful  deliverance  out  of  all  his  dark- 
ness and  all  his  trouble. 

The  truth  which  he  announced  as  having  been  discovered 
by  him  was  not  by  any  means  all  new.  It  was,  in  the  first 
place,  a  simple  restatement  of  the  Hindu  doctrine  of  trans- 
migrations, to  which  he  added  that  existence  necessarily  in- 
volved suffering,  and  that  suffering  can  only  be  prevented  by 
self-restraint  and  the  extinction  of  desires  and  lusts.  Of  all 
desires,  he  held  that  none  was  more  inseparably  connected 
with  our  sufferings  and  troubles  in  this  life,  than  that  of  con- 
tinued separate  existence.  Sir  Monier  Williams  gives  the 


102  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

following  summary  of  the  cardinal  doctrines  taught  by  him 
at  the  beginning  of  his  public  ministry.  He  laid  down  four 
great  truths  and  what  he  called  an  eightfold  path,  and  these 
constituted  the  key  to  his  whole  doctrine : 

"First:  All  existence — that  is,  existence  in  any  form,  whether  in 
earth  or  heavenly  spheres — necessarily  involves  pain  and  suffering. 
Second:  All  suffering  is  caused  by  lust,  or  craving  of  desire,  of  three 
kinds — for  sensual  pleasure,  for  wealth,  and  for  existence.  Third: 
Cessation  of  suffering  is  simultaneous  with  cessation  of  lust,  craving, 
and  desire.  Fourth:  Extinction  of  lust,  craving,  and  desire,  and  ces- 
sation of  suffering,  are  accomplished  by  perseverance  in  the  noble 
eightfold  path;  namely,  right  belief  or  views,  right  resolve,  right 
speech,  right  work,  right  livelihood,  right  exercise  or  training,  riglit- 
mindfulness,  right  mental  concentration." 

! 

These  doctrines  seem  simple  enough  in  statement,  but 
their  real  meaning  does  not  lie  on  the  surface.  The  word 
"right"  is  to  be  understood  as  meaning  practically  in  accord- 
ance with  Gautama's  directions.'  "  Right  belief,"  for  instance, 
refers  solely  to  belief  in  Gautama  and  his  teachings;  "right 
resolve"  means  the  resolve  to  abandon  one's  family;  "right 
livelihood"  is  living  by  alms,  as  a  mendicant  does;  and  so 
on.  Instead  of  a  lofty  ideal  of  doctrine,  or  a  noble  standard 
of  living,  the  four  great  truths  and  the  "eightfold  path" 
hardly  rise  above  the  level  of  puerility.  The  reformer  had 
struggled  hard  and  bravely  to  reach  the  light;  but  his 
mind  was  still  befogged  by  the  errors  in  which  he  had  been 
trained,  and  he  had  by  no  means  found  a  pathway  by  which 
to  lead  his  countrymen  out  of  the  deep  darkness  in  which 
they  had  so  long  been  groping. 

Very  soon  after  attaining  what  he  called  his  enlighten- 
ment, Gautama,  or,  as  from  this  time  he  was  called,  the 
Buddha,  began  to  preach,  and  very  speedily  won  converts 
from  among  his  hearers.  We  need  not  wonder  at  his  suc- 
cess when  we  remember  that  up  to  that  time  the  religious 
teachers  of  India  spoke  in  an  unknown  tongue,  so  far  as  the 
masses  were_ concerned.  Guatama,  on  the  other  hand,  used 


BUDDHISM.  103 

the  language  of  the  common  people,  and  by  the  aid  of  fa- 
miliar illustrations  succeeded  in  making  himself  thoroughly 
understood.  He  also  appealed  to  all  classes,  without  distinc- 
tion of  caste;  and,  understanding  perfectly  as  he  did  the 
prevailing  religious  ideas  of  the  people,  he  had  no  difficulty 
whatever  in  finding  hearers  or  in  winning  converts.  All  his 
converts,  however,  at  first  became  monks.  This  was  in  ac- 
cordance, not  only  with  the  popular  Hindu  ideal,  but  with  the 
example  with  which  all  were  familiar.  A  man  in  that  early 
day,  as  well  as  in  all  the  ages  since,  who  gave  himself  up  to 
a  life  of  religious  service,  was  expected  to  separate  himself 
from  the  world,  and  even  from  family  and  friends,  and  be- 
come, in  some  form  or  other,  a  religious  recluse.  It  is  prob- 
able that  Gautama  had  no  more  ambitious  thought  at  first 
than  that  of  gathering  out  earnest  men  from  the  careless 
world  in  which  he  lived  and  moved,  and  teaching  them  how 
to  live  the  life  which  he  himself  had  adopted.  His  first  dis- 
ciples were  all  men  of  high  rank,  and  necessarily  must  have 
commanded  a  wide  influence  wherever  they  went.  Soon  after 
beginning  his  long  public  ministry,  he  sent  out  bands  of 
monks  to  preach  the  doctrines  which  they  had  learned  from 
him.  This  was  something  entirely  new  in  India.  Preaching 
seems  to  have  been  little  practiced,  and  possibly  up  to  that 
time  had  not  been  known.  It  is  no  wonder  that  a  form  of 
teaching  so  new,  and  in  many  respects  so  attractive,  every- 
where arrested  attention,  and  that  converts  increased  and 
multiplied.  The  Buddha  at  first  made  no  attempt  to  organ- 
ize his  followers.  His  converts  became  monks,  but  not 
priests.  They  assumed  no  priestly  functions,  and  exercised 
no  authority  save  that  of  a  teacher.  Gautama  was,  in  fact,  a 
kind  of  Indian  Tolstoi,  who  acted  at  once — and  in  a  most 
literal  sense — upon  his  convictions,  but  who  had  neither 
inclination  nor  ability  to  build  up  a  new  organization,  or  follow 
what  might  seem  to  be  a  pathway  of  personal  aggran- 
dizement. 

For  forty-five  years  the  gifted  monk  pursued  his  calling, 


104  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

living  in  the  most  simple  style,  but  practicing  no  austerities, 
and  disregarding  the  elaborate  ceremonial  duties  of  the  Brah- 
mans  around  him.  He  wrote  nothing;  but  his  teaching, 
no  doubt  repeated  over  and  over  at  different  places,  was 
either  taken  down  at  the  time  or  remembered  by  his  disci- 
ples. In  this  respect  he  reminds  us  of  the  method  pursued 
at  a  later  day  by  our  Saviour.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  common 
Asiatic  method,  and  is  illustrated  by  many  religious  teachers 
in  India  at  the  present  day.  It  may  be  accepted  as  not  only 
probable,  but  certain,  that  our  Saviour  repeated  his  discourses, 
either  in  whole  or  in  part,  scores  of  times,  as  the  record  itself 
plainly  shows,  and  thus  his  disciples  became  familiar  with  his 
teachings. 

Some  little  time  after  Gautama's  death,  about  five  hundred 
of  his  monks  assembled  together  for  the  purpose  of  collecting 
his  sayings  in  written  form.  This  took  place  about  four 
hundred  years  before  Christ.  Twenty  years  later  a  second 
council  of  seven  hundred  monks  met  at  a  place  near  Patua, 
and  continued  in  session  eight  months,  engaged  in  making  a 
fuller  and  better  arranged  collection  of  his  teachings.  A 
third  council  was  called  about  250  B.  C.,  during  the  reign  of 
a  powerful  king  named  Asoka,  who  has  been  called  the  Con- 
stantine  of  Buddhism.  This  monarch  extended  his  kingdom 
over  all  North  India,  and  sent  out  large  numbers  of  mission- 
aries, who  met  with  great  success  in  winning  converts. 

At  these  councils  the  canon  of  Buddhist  scriptures  grad- 
ually took  shape,  and  various  changes  were  introduced  into 
the  system.  Ancient  Buddhism,  however,  was  very  different 
from  that  of  later  years,  or  of  the  present  day.  As  popularly 
known,  it  was  in  many  respects  a  protest  against  Brahman- 
ism.  It  did  not  reject  caste,  but  it  ignored  it  by  appealing 
to  all  on  equal  terms.  It  made  light  of  religious  austerities, 
and  rejected  the  elaborate  ceremonies  of  the  Brahmans.  It 
spoke  in  the  language  of  the  common  people,  and  by  contrast 
with  Brahmauism  it  must  have  seemed  liberal  indeed.  It 
made  much  of  the  ills  of  the  present  life,  which  all  keenly 


BUDDHISM.  105 

feel,  and  held  out  hope  of  final  escape  from  earthly  woes  by 
entering  the  state  of  Nirwan,  beyond  which  there  can  be  no 
further  birth,  if,  indeed,  any  further  existence.  But  Bud- 
dhism at  its  best  was  a  cheerless  system.  It  knew  no  God  in 
any  real  sense,  and  was  practically  atheistic.  It  believed  per- 
sonal existence  in  itself  to  be  a  source  of  evil,  and  hence 
could  have  no  real  hope  of  conscious  immortality.  It  took 
a  wholly  pessimistic  view  of  life,  and,  by  breaking  up  the 
family,  made  war  on  the  holiest  instincts  of  the  race.  It 
taught  men  to  trust  in  their  own  efforts  wholly,  and  to 
look  for  no  help  from  without.  It  exacted  works  of  merit, 
and  burdened  its  votaries  with  useless  duties.  It  ignored 
prayer,  and  knew  nothing  of  faith,  hope,  or  love.  In  fact,  it 
offered  a  dismal  escape  from  a  dismal  but  mistaken  view  of 
human  life. 

Before  the  death  of  Buddha,  an  important  change  was 
made  by  the  admission  of  what  were  called  lay  brethren — not 
to  the  full  rights  of  discipleship,  but  to  a  position  which  re- 
minds one  somewhat  of  the  "proselytes  of  the  gate"  among 
the  ancient  Hebrews.  These  lay  brethren  were  simply  re- 
quired to  pronounce  a  certain  formula,  and  assume  the  duty 
of  performing  good  works,  chief  of  which  was  that  of  serv- 
ing the  monks.  If  any  one  refused  to  do  this,  the  penalty 
was  simply  to  forbid  him  performing  any  works  of  merit, 
which,  by  the  great  mass  of  Buddhists,  is  valued  above  any 
other  privilege.  They  were  also  required  to  observe  the 
usual  rules  of  morality  which  had  been  laid  down  by  the 
Buddha.  It  ought  to  be  said,  to  the  credit  both  of  Gautama 
and  of  the  religious  system  which  grew  up  out  of  his  teach- 
ings, that  it  had  a  code  of  morality  which  was  in  some  respects 
in  advance  of  any  code  which  had  previously  been  recognized 
in  India.  It  has  been  summarized  as  including  five  prohibi- 
tions: First,  killing  any  living  thing;  second,  stealing;  third, 
adultery;  fourth,  lying;  fifth,  drinking  strong  drink.  The 
prohibition  against  killing  was  made  to  include  the  killing  of 
animals  for  sacrificial  purposes,  a  thing  which  the  Brahmans 


106  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

have  always  tolerated.  Such  a  code  as  this  is  of  great  value 
in  any  non-Christian  land,  although  its  first  and  most  prom- 
inent prohibition  in  practical  life  has  a  tendency  to  exalt  the 
value  of  insect  life,  and  diminish  that  of  human  beings.  It  is 
a  strange  peculiarity  of  Hindu  thought  to  the  present  day, 
that  it  seems  utterly  incapable  of  distinguishing  between  the 
value  of  human  life  and  that  of  animals  and  insects. 

At  a  very  early  day,  Buddhism  was  torn  by  dissensions, 
and  no  less  than  eighteen  different  sects  have  been  enumerated 
as  existing  previous  to  the  time  of  King  Asoka.  In  the  course 
of  time  it  was  divided  into  two  great  sections,  known  as  the 
Southern  and  Northern,  respectively.  The  head-quarters  of 
the  former  were  in  Ceylon,  and  of  the  latter  in  Thibet.  Each 
Buddhist  country,  however,  has  modified  the  Buddhism  which 
it  adopted,  so  that  national  peculiarities  are  easily  distin- 
guished, not  only  in  its  forms  of  service,  but  in  its  doctrinal 
teachings.  Strangely  enough,  the  Buddhism  of  Thibet  bears 
a  curious  resemblance  to  many  of  the  peculiarities  of  the 
Roman  Catholics.  Attention  was  first  called  to  this  fact  by 
the  celebrated  Roman  Catholic  traveler,  M.  Hue,  and  his  ob- 
servations have  been  confirmed  by  other  travelers  since. 
Not  only  does  the  Grand  Lama  bear  a  singular  resemblance 
to  the  Pope,  both  in  the  pretensions  which  he  assumes  and  in 
the  estimation  in  which  he  is  held;  but  many  other  peculiar- 
ities, such  as  the  celibacy  of  the  priesthood,  fasting,  confession, 
saint-worship,  holy  water,  bells,  processions,  rosaries,  miters, 
crosiers,  sacred  images,  the  worship  of  relics,  lamps  and  illu- 
minations, the  practice  of  austerities,  etc.,  are  almost  identical 
as  witnessed  in  Rome  and  in  Lhassa.  Sir  Monier  Williams 
quotes  M.  Hue  as  follows : 

"The  cross,  the  miter,  the  dalmatica;  the  cope  which  Grand 
Lamas  wear  on  their  journeys,  or  when  they  are  performing  some  cer- 
emony out  of  the  temple ;  the  service  with  double  choirs,  the  psalm- 
ody, the  exorcisms;  the  censer  for  incense,  suspended  from  five  chains, 
and  opened  or  closed  at  pleasure ;  the  benedictions  pronounced  W 
Lamas  by  extending  the  right  hand  over  the  heads  of  the  faithful ; 


BUDDHISM.  107 

the  chaplet,  ecclesiastical  celibacy,  spiritual  retirement,  the  worship 
of  the  saints,  the  fasts,  the  processions,  the  litanies,  the  holy  water, — 
all  these  are  analogies  between  the  Buddhists  and  ourselves." 

Who  is  debtor  and  who  creditor  in  this  remarkable  com- 
parison of  accounts?  Christians  and  Buddhists  in  China  are 
said  to  dispute  the  point  very  warmly ;  but  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  the  Buddhists  were  in  the  field  long  before 
Romanism  had  an  existence.  It  is  an  established  fact  that 
one  of  the  Popes  actually  canonized  the  founder  of  Buddhism, 
under  the  name  of  Josaphat.  Professor  Max  M tiller,  in  the 
Contemporary  Review  of  July,  1870,  has  given  the  evidence 
on  this  subject  at  length,  and  Sir  William  Hunter  accepts  it 
as  practically  proven  that  one  of  the  Popes  did  actually  can- 
onize the  celebrated  Buddha  on  the  authority  of  Saint  John 
of  Damascus.  Sir  William  Hunter  says :  "  The  name  of 
Josaphat  is  itself  identified  by  philologers  with  that  of  Bod- 
dhisattwa,  the  complete  appellation  of  Buddha."  This  whole 
subject  of  the  similitude  existing  between  the  Papacy  of  Rome 
and  the  Lamaism  of  Thibet  is  worthy  of  careful  study,  and 
no  doubt  in  the  fullness  of  time  the  points  of  resemblance 
will  be  traced  to  their  correct  origin.  For  the  present,  how- 
ever, it  unquestionably  places  the  Roman  Catholics  in  a  very 
compromising  position,  as  upon  the  testimony  of  their  own 
writers  their  public  worship  is  found  to  correspond  strikingly 
with  practices  which  almost  certainly  existed  before  any  Pope 
reigned  in  Rome. 

As  indicated  above,  it  must  always  be  remembered  that 
later  Buddhism  in  all  countries  not  only  differs  widely  from 
the  system  taught  by  Gautama,  but  in  most  respects  has  be- 
come diametrically  opposed  to  it.  Sir  Monier  Williams,  in- 
deed, says  very  truthfully  that  the  Buddhism  of  later  times  is 
in  reality  a  recoil  rather  than  a  development  of  earlier  doc- 
trine. The  Buddhism  taught  by  Gautama  was,  in  many  re- 
spects, in  necessary  hostility  to  the  instincts  of  the  race;  and 
the  result  has  been  that  in  the  lapse  of  centuries  the  pro- 
fessed followers  of  Gautama  have,  in  many  important 


108  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

respects,  wholly  departed  from  his  teaching,  and  are  now  found 
acting  and  teaching  in  singular  contradiction  to  their  own 
supposed  principles.  I  can  not  do  better  than  quote  again 
from  Sir  Monier  Williams: 

"Buddhism,  we  know,  started  with  the  doctrine  that  all  idea  of 
marriage  or  a  happy  home-life  was  to  be  abandoned  by  wise  men.  .  ..  . 
Of  course,  an  immediate  result  was  that,  although  according  to 
Buddha's  ordinance  any  one  who  aimed  at  perfect  sanctity  was  bound 
to  lead  a  celibate  life,  the  rule  was  admitted  to  be  inapplicable  to  the 
mass  of  human  beings.  The  mass  of  the  people  were,  in  short,  offenders 
against  the  primary  law  of  Buddhism.  There  is  even  evidence  that 
among  monkish  communities  in  northern  countries  the  law  against 
marriage  was  relaxed.  It  is  well  known  that  at  the  present  day  the 
lamaseries  in  Sikkim  and  Thibet  swarm  with  children  of  monks, 
though  called  their  nephews  and  nieces.  It  was  the  same  in  regard 
to  the  unnatural  vow  of  poverty.  Monasteries  and  lamaseries  now 
possess  immense  revenues,  and  monks  are  often  wealthy  men." 

If  Gautama  did  not  deny  the  existence  of  a  God,  he  cer- 
tainly ignored  it.  His  early  disciples  were  taught  to  depend 
on  no  being  higher  than  themselves.  The  recoil  from  this 
position  has  been  that  the  Buddha  himself  has  been  converted 
in  popular  esteem  into  a  deity,  and  now  bears  the  title  of 
"the  chief  god  of  all  the  gods."  He  also  taught  his  disci- 
ples not  to  believe  in  any  supernatural  revelation,  as  no  such 
thing  was  needed.  All  enlightenment  was  to  come  from 
within,  and  every  man  was  to  find  this  for  himself.  So  far 
from  adhering  to  this  transcendental  notion,  the  great  body 
of  Buddhists  at  the  present  day  attribute  infallibility  to 
Buddha's  own  teaching,  and  not  only  accept  his  law  as  di- 
vine, but  as  a  visible  embodiment  of  himself,  and  insist  as 
earnestly  upon  believing  in  a  revelation  as  any  other  relig- 
ionists in  the  world.  Gautama  left  no  place  in  his  system  for 
prayer,  and  denied  that  any  good  could  come  from  such  an 
exercise ;  but  now,  of  all  living  men,  the  Buddhists  have  the 
most  superstitious  regard  for  prayer,  and  not  only  have  faith 
in  the  prayer-forms,  but  have  a  superstitious  reverence  for 


BUDDHISM.  109 

the  very  letters  and  syllables  with  which  the  prayer  is  written. 
I  am  writing  this  in  Darjeeliug,  a  Himalayan  station  on  the 
borders  of  Thibet,  and  every  time  I  go  out  I  see  men  by  the 
wayside,  patiently  turning  hollow  cylinders  containing  writ- 
ten forms  of  prayer,  under  the  impression  that  each  time  the 
cylinder  revolves  the  prayer  has  been  once  said,  and  so  much 
merit  accumulated.  Gautama  rejected  a  priesthood,  and  made 
no  provision  in  his  system  even  for  religious  teachers,  save 
as  all  monks  assumed  that  character;  but  now  we  find  his 
followers,  at  least  throughout  all  Central  Asia,  in  more  ab- 
ject bondage  to  a  heartless  priesthood  than  perhaps  can  be 
found  among  any  other  people  living.  Gautama  rejected  idols 
aud  idol-worship;  but  now  it  may  be  truthfully  said  that  in 
Buddhist  countries  idols  are  more  numerous  than  among  any 
other  idol-worshiping  people  in  the  world.  The  same  re- 
mark is  true  of  the  worship  of  relics  of  all  kinds,  the  most 
ignorant  and  superstitious  of  the  Roman  Catholics  themselves 
not  equaling  the  devout  Buddhists  in  their  eager  desire  to 
possess  themselves  of  any  sacred  relic,  even  though  it  be  but 
a  hair  of  a  deceased  saint. 

In  short,  Buddhism,  much  vaunted  as  it  has  been  in  re- 
cent years  by  men  who  regard  themselves  as  persons  of  ad- 
vanced thought,  is  one  of  the  most  heartless  and  helpless 
systems  of  religious  belief  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Its  ten- 
der regard  for  life  in  all  its  forms,  and  the  worthy  teachings 
of  its  founder  in  regard  to  gentle  dealing  towards  all  men 
and  other  living  creatures,  have  not  tended,  as  is  often  pop- 
ularly asserted,  to  make  its  votaries  either  kind  or  humane. 
Burma  is,  and  throughout  its  whole  historical  era  has  been,  a 
Buddhist  country,  and  yet  its  people  are  less  humane  and 
much  more  cruel  than  the  Hindus  of  India.  It  is  only 
four  or  five  years  since  crucifixion  was  abolished  in  Upper 
Burma.  Our  Saviour,  by  his  tragical  death  upon  the  cross, 
did  more  to  create  feelings  of  genuine  humanity  in  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  those  who  accepted  his  teaching,  than  has 
been  accomplished  by  all  other  influences  combined  in  all 


110  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

the  history  of  the  world.  The  Burman  Buddhists  to-day  can 
see  no  special  objection  to  putting  an  ordinary  thief  to  death, 
either  by  impalement,  or  by  a  cruel  crucifixion  upon  a  bam- 
boo cross.  Their  religion  ^utterly  fails  to  show  them  the  bar- 
barity of  the  spectacle.  In  like  manner,  all  their  punish- 
ments are  barbarous,  and  all  their  tender  mercies  are  cruel ; 
and  yet  the  Burman  is  by  no  means  a  worse  man  than  his 
neighbors. 

Buddhism  is  no  longer  a  religion  in  India.  For  many 
years  it  was  supposed  that  the  Buddhists  had  been  expelled 
from  the  country,  or  else  forcibly  converted  to  Hinduism  in 
the  course  of  a  long  series  of  desolating  wars.  This  view, 
however,  is  now  abandoned.  It  is  abundantly  evident  that 
Buddhism  slowly  gave  way  before  the  unremitting  assaults  of  a 
revived  Hinduism.  For  many  centuries  Hinduism  had 
lapsed  into  a  condition  of  apathy  and  weakness  which  greatly 
facilitated  the  rapid  advance  of  its  rival;  but  at  a  remote 
period,  probably  about  the  eighth  century  before  Christ,  a 
great  revival  of  Hinduism  took  place,  and  step  by  step  the 
Brahman  gained  the  ascendency  over  the  Buddhist,  until  at 
last  the  Buddhist  faith  ceased  to  be  professed  throughout 
India.  The  Brahman  was  aided  in  winning  this  great  victory 
by  his  skill  in  borrowing  from  Buddhism  whatever  would 
help  him  in  the  contest.  What  he  could  not  uproot,  he 
quietly  accepted  as  his  own,  and  finally  went  to  the  extent  of 
accepting  Gautama  himself  as  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu, 
whereby,  no  doubt,  large  numbers  of  eager  but  ignorant  fol- 
lowers of  the  Buddha  were  induced  to  accept  Brahmanism, 
under  the  impression  that  they  were  not  really  giving  up 
their  religion.  Buddhism  still  retains  a  foot-hold  in  Ceylon 
and  Thibet,  Burma,  Siam,  and  other  Indo-Chinese  countries, 
and  throughout  China  and  Japan.  Its  numerical  strength, 
however,  has  been  greatly  exaggerated.  So  far  from  being 
the  leading  religion  of  Asia  or  of  the  world,  it  probably 
stands  third  or  fourth  in  the  list.  Its  supposed  preponder- 
ance has  been  made  to  appear  by  assuming  that  all  the  people 


BUDDHISM.  Ill 

of  China  are  Buddhists,  which  is  by  no  means  the  case. 
Christianity  undoubtedly  is  the  leading  religion  now  of  the 
world.  Hinduism,  in  its  varied  forms,  probably  stands 
second,  while  Mohammedanism  and  Buddhism  must  dispute 
between  them  for  the  third  place. 


Chapter   YIIL 
MOHAMMEDANISM. 

r  I  ^HE  faith  of  Islam  was  introduced  into  India,  as,  indeed, 
1  into  all  other  countries  in  which  it  has  ever  gained  a 
foot-hold,  by  following  in  the  wake  of  a  conquering  army. 
Mohammedanism  is  constantly  spoken  of  as  one  of  the  mis- 
sionary religions  of  the  world;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  point  to  a  single  nation  in  the  world 
which  has  been  converted  to  Islamism  by  a  purely  mission- 
ary process.  It  is  essentially  a  warlike  system,  and  can  not 
possibly  preserve  an  aggressive  attitude  throughout  a  long 
period  of  peace.  As  soon  as  the  soldiers  are  sent  away  to 
their  homes,  the  Mohammedan  missionary  feels  that  his  op- 
portunity, for  the  time  at  least,  is  lost,  and  his  zeal  begins  to 
abate.  In  all  probability  no  effort  would  ever  have  been 
made  to  establish  Islamism  in  India  had  it  not  been  for  the 
ambition  of  the  successive  Mohammedan  leaders  who  invaded 
India  from  the  Northwest.  No  impression  was  made  upon 
the  religion  of  the  people  during  the  earlier  invasions,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  they  were  not  permanent;  but  as  soon 
as  these  invaders  determined  to  hold  permanently  the  regions 
which  had  submitted  to  their  arms,  Mohammedanism  struck 
its  roots  into  the  soil,  and  from  that  time  forth  became  one 
of  the  established  Indian  religions.  The  earliest  date  at 
which  it  can  be  said  to  have  thus  gained  a  permanent  foot- 
hold in  India,  was  about  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century. 

From  the  first  the  two  chief  means  employed  in  winning 

the  people  of  India  to  the  faith  of  Islam  were,  force  on  the 

one  hand,  and  rewards  on  the  other.     It  is   as  natural  for 

Mohammedans,  when  invading  a  foreign  country,  to  call  upon 

112 


MOHAMMEDANISM.  1 1 3 

the  people  to  accept  the  religion  of  their  prophet,  as  it  is  for  a 
Christian  missionary  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Hence, 
in  ancient  times  it  often  happened  that  when  a  vast  army  was 
approaching  a  given  district,  devastating  the  country  with  fire 
and  sword,  and  spreading  terror  far  and  wide,  the  despairing 
people  made  haste  to  avow  themselves  ready  to  accept  the  re- 
ligion of  the  invaders,  on  condition  that  their  lives  and  prop- 
erty should  be  spared.  In  no  part  of  the  Eastern  world, 
however,  did  the  Mohammedans  find  any  people  so  unwilling 
to  accept  their  religion,  as  a  condition  of  being  spared,  as  in 
India.  The  Hindus  have  always  been  adepts  in  the  art  of 
passive  resistance,  and  when  unable  to  longer  oppose  the 
Mohammedan  invaders,  they  quietly  submitted  to  whatever 
fate  awaited  them ;  and  although  in  many  instances  they 
were  savagely  put  to  death,  yet  after  a  time  their  conquerors 
learned  that  they  could  not  be  proselyted  by  force,  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  to  put  them  all  to  death  would  simply  ruin 
the  country  which  they  wished  to  hold  as  a  valuable  posses- 
sion. At  the  same  time  they  began  to  employ,  with  great 
skill,  the  policy  of  richly  rewarding  those  who  accepted  their 
religion.  A  confiscated  village,  for  instance,  would  be  given 
to  a  poor  man,  who  would  thereby  acquire  the  right  to  settle 
as  many  of  his  friends  in  it  as  he  could  induce  to  become 
apostates  like  himself.  Offices  of  all  possible  grades  under 
the  Government  are  always  eagerly  sought  in  India ;  and 
these,  again,  were  bestowed  upon  apostates  from  the  Hindu 
faith  with  such  skill  that  constant,  if  not  large,  accessions 
were  made  in  this  way  to  the  ranks  of  Mohammedanism. 

The  mass  of  these  converts  were,  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, received  from  the  ranks  of  the  poor.  Hinduism  had 
not  only  neglected,  but  in  many  cases  grievously  oppressed, 
large  numbers  of  the  lower  classes,  who  saw  at  once  a  chance 
for  bettering  their  condition ;  and  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, having  but  slight  bonds  to  hold  them  in  allegiance  to 
the  popular  religion  of  the  country,  and  the  strongest  pos- 
sible incentives  to  men  as  poor  as  they  were  to  adopt  that  of 

8 


114  fXDLi  .-ixn  ^r.lL.lYSf.l. 


the  invaders,  they  easily  passed  over  from  a  nominal  allegiance 
to  Hinduism  to  a  devoted  attachment  to  Islamism.  Probably 
the  most  valuable  converts  made  by  the  Mohammedans  during 
their  earlier  history  in  India  came  from  these  lower  classes. 
As  the  successive  waves  of  invasion  swept  on  to  the  south 
and  southeast,  they  seemed  to  lose  their  force  in  a  measure, 
so  that  when  they  reached  Bengal,  while  the  number  of  con- 
verts won  from  Hinduism  seemed  to  increase,  the  quality  rap- 
idly deteriorated.  The  Mohammedans,  indeed,  throughout 
all  the  country  districts  of  Bengal,  are  only  semi-converts  to 
the  present  day.  During  the  great  Hindu  festivals  they  may 
be  seen  mingling  freely  with  their  idolatrous  neighbors  in 
celebrating  the  honors  of  heathen  gods,  while  at  best  they  pay 
but  slight  regard  to  the  tenets  of  the  Koran.  The  total  num- 
ber of  Mohammedans  in  India,  according  to  the  last  census, 
is  57,325,432  ;  but  of  these  it  may  safely  be  assumed  that  at 
least  one-third  are  only  Mohammedan  in  name. 

The  reader,  however,  must  not  suppose  for  a  moment  that 
the  Mohammedans  of  India,  taking  them  as  a  class,  and  esti- 
mating their  character  as  would  be  done  in  the  case  of  any 
other  great  community  by  that  of  their  leaders,  are  wanting  in 
attachment  to  their  own  religion.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
universal  testimony  of  intelligent  Europeans  who  have  spent 
any  considerable  time  in  India,  will  be  to  the  effect  that  they 
are  remarkably  devoted  to  their  religious  faith,  and  manifest 
a  zeal  for  it  which,  if  not  always  according  to  knowledge,  at 
least  reflects  credit  on  their  sincerity.  History  affords  many 
illustrations  of  the  curious  fact  that  persons  who  have  been 
forcibly  compelled  to  exchange  one  religion  for  another,  not 
only  become  reconciled  to  their  new  faith,  but  often  become 
its  most  devoted  adherents.  A  striking  instance  of  this  is 
found  in  the  case  of  the  famous  Mamelukes.  From  the  first, 
the  leading  apostates  from  Hinduism  became  Mohammedans 
not  only  in  name,  but  in  the  fierce  zeal  for  which  the  followers 
of  that  religion  have  always  been  noted;  and  to  the  pres- 
ent day  no  more  earnest  and  determined  followers  of  the 


MOHAMMEDANISM.  1 1 5 

faith  of  Islam  can  be  found  in  any  part  of  the  world  than 
in  India. 

In  addition  to  the  conversions  from  Hinduism  noted 
above,  it  must  be  remembered  also  that  a  very  large  number 
of  zealous  Mohammedans  who  entered  India,  either  as  sol- 
diers or  among  the  irregular  followers  of  the  great  invading 
armies  of  former  centuries,  became  permanent  settlers  upon 
Indian  soil,  and  thus  added  an  important  element  to  the  Mo- 
hammedan population  of  the  empire.  It  has  been  denied  by 
some  recent  writers  that  these  settlers  were  sufficient  in  num- 
ber to  make  any  perceptible  impression  upon  the  general 
community;  but  any  one  who  has  paid  close  attention  to  the 
distinctions  which  are  noticeable  among  the  people  of  North- 
ern India,  can  not  have  failed  to  observe  a  very  marked  ad- 
mixture of  foreign  blood  among  the  Mohammedans.  Blue 
eyes  and  auburn  beard,  and  sometimes  a  veritable  red  shock 
of  hair,  unmistakably  mark  a  man  in  India  as  a  descendant 
of  some  of  the  invading  hordes  which  came  down  from  the 
Northwest  in  former  centuries.  The  physiognomy  marks 
vast  numbers  of  the  people  no  less  unmistakably,  and  the 
general  character  of  the  Mohammedans  of  the  country  has 
undoubtedly  been  largely  influenced  by  this  foreign  element. 
Another  important  foreign  element,  which  has  reached  Western 
India  especially,  has  come  from  Arabia.  Indeed,  two  streams 
of  Arab  emigration  are  constantly  flowing  in  upon  Western 
India,  one  from  the  mouth  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  other 
from  the  Persian  Gulf. 

An  important  question  presents  itself  at  this  point  as  to 
what  the  general  influence  of  Mohammedanism  upon  the 
people  of  India  has  been.  It  has  had  abundant  time  to  work 
out  whatever  results  it  is  capable  of  producing;  and  upon  the 
whole,  in  no  part  of  the  world  has  it  had  a  better  oppor- 
tunity of  developing  its  own  inherent  strength  or  weakness 
than  in  this  populous  corner  of  the  globe,  where  for  centuries 
it  has  been  shut  in  by  itself  to  work  out  its  own  destiny  as 
6est  it  could. 


116  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

It  is  possible  that,  as  a  Christian  missionary,  I  write  under 
the  influence  of  a  certain  measure  of  more  or  less  unconscious 
prejudice;  but  I  certainly  can  not  give  a  very  favorable  re- 
ply to  the  above  question.  Mohammedanism  has  had  a  rare 
opportunity  in  India,  but  has  improved  it  very  badly.  If  I 
answer  the  question  at  all,  I  must  be  permitted  to  say  that 
such  benefits  as  have  been  conferred  upon  India  in  the  Mo- 
hammedan name  have  been  bestowed  by  Mohammedans, 
rather  than  by  their  religion.  In  other  words,  the  people 
have  been  better  than  their  religion  in  many  respects,  and 
have  not  lived  all  these  centuries  in  the  country  without  im- 
proving it,  in  some  respects  at  least.  It  may  be  said,  for 
instance,  that  they  conferred  a  great  benefit  upon  India  by 
giving  the  people,  for  the  first  time,  what  might  be  called  the 
imperial  idea.  The  great  Emperor  Akbar — who,  by  the  way, 
was  by  no  means  a  typical  Mohammedan — during  his  long 
reign  was  perhaps  the  most  powerful  monarch  on  the  globe. 
He,  for  the  first  time,  showed  the  people  of  India  what  their 
country  was  capable  of  becoming  when  molded  into  one  great 
empire.  He  did  not  succeed,  it  is  true,  in  extending  his  sway 
over  the  whole  of  the  peninsula,  but  nevertheless  he  first 
clearly  presented  the  ideal  before  the  people,  and  some  of  his 
successors  struggled  desperately,  though  unsuccessfully,  to 
realize  his  ideal.  The  reader  may  possibly  fail  to  appreciate 
the  value  of  a  mere  scheme  for  creating  a  vast  empire;  but  if 
a  native  of  India,  he  would  perhaps  look  at  the  subject  from 
a  different  point  of  view.  India  has  yet  to  take  her  place 
among  the  great  empires  of  the  world,  and  every  son  and 
daughter  of  the  soil  ought  to  grasp  and  fully  master  this  idea. 
The  caste  system  made  it  impossible  for  the  earlier  Hindu 
rulers  to  assume  anything  like  an  imperial  policy.  The  Mo- 
hammedans wrere  able  to  aspire  to  it,  but  failed  to  realize  it. 
It  remained  for  the  English  to  put  it  fully  into  practice,  and 
it  now  remains  for  coming  generations  to  work  out  the  grand 
possibilities  which  the  presence  of  a  central  imperial  Govern- 
ment places  within  their  reach. 


MOHAMMEDANISM.  1 1 7 

The  Mohammedans  did  not  introduce  many  improvements 
into  India.  Their  greatest  boast,  perhaps,  will  be  that  they 
brought  with  them  the  Saracenic  style  of  architecture,  and 
have  left  behind  them  some  of  the  finest  structures  in  the 
world.  They  also,  in  some  parts  of  the  country,  introduced  a 
slightly  higher  grade  of  civilization  than  that  which  the 
Hindus  had  enjoyed.  This  is  notably  the  case  in  Rohilkhand, 
where  the  Rohillas,  when  expelled  by  the  King  of  Oudh, 
with  the  co-operation  of  Warren  Hastings,  left  behind  them 
more  towns  with  paved  streets,  and  more  and  better  artisans, 
than  can  be  found  in  any  other  part  of  the  country.  The 
same  remark  applies,  to  some  extent,  to  nearly  all  of  North- 
ern India;  but  when  we  consider  the  centuries  during  which 
the  Moguls  held  absolute  sway,  and  the  unlimited  resources  at 
their  disposal,  it  must  be  conceded  that  they  did  very  little  in 
advancing  the  civilization  of  India. 

One  great  benefit  conferred  upon  India  by  the  Moham- 
medans has  been  the  infusion  of  a  more  vigorous  element  into 
the  national  character.  The  general  character  of  the  Hindu 
people  is  one  which,  in  many  respects,  does  them  credit ;  but 
they  lack,  to  some  extent,  that  measure  of  vigor  which  is  nec- 
essary to  constitute  any  people  a  great  people.  The  Moham- 
medans have  supplied  this  deficiency,  at  least  to  a  very  nota- 
ble extent.  The  original  invaders  were  not  only  men  of 
great  vigor,  but  their  subsequent  career  in  India  undoubt- 
edly influenced  the  great  multitudes  who  rallied  round  their 
standard,  in  such  a  way  as  to  create  and  foster  an  enterpris- 
,ing  spirit,  which  is  but  another  name  for  personal  vigor.  It 
is  probable,  also,  that  they  introduced  among  the  people  of 
India  a  governing  ability  which  had  previously  been  some- 
what wanting  in  the  national  character,  and  which  has  since 
been  illustrated  in  the  successful  career  of  many  great  leaders 
in  all  parts  of  the  empire.  I  am  aware  that  many  intelligent 
Hindus  would  question  this  statement;  but  the  general  im- 
pression prevails  among  those  well  acquainted  with  India, 
that  the  Mohammedans  of  the  present  day  have  more  ability 


118  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

of  this  kind — that  is,  more  ability  as  leaders  and  governors — 
than  the  Hindus.  A  few  generations  of  training  under  dif- 
ferent circumstances  might  possibly  make  this  difference 
much  less  apparent  than  it  is  at  the  present  day ;  but  there 
is  little  in  Hinduism  which  will  develop  such  a  trait  in  na- 
tional character,  and  I  think  it  will  have  to  be  conceded  as 
one  of  the  not  very  numerous  merits  of  Mohammedanism, 
that  it  has  wrought  a  measure  of  improvement  in  this  direc- 
tion among  the  people  of  India. 

On  the  other  hand,  has  Mohammedanism  taught  the 
people  of  India  any  bad  lessons,  or  produced  any  effects 
which,  upon  the  whole,  must  be  regarded  as  unfortunate  and 
hurtful?  I  fear  this  question  will  have  to  be  answered  in  the 
affirmative.  In  the  first  place,  the  reader  in  America  will  be 
surprised  to  hear  me  say  that  they  lowered  the  moral  tone 
which  they  found  among  the  people  of  India  on  their  first 
arrival.  It  is  constantly  said  by  persons  who  have  not 
studied  this  question  in  the  light  of  personal  observation, 
that  a  pure  theism,  such  as  that  held  by  the  Mohammedans, 
must  have  produced  a  powerful  effect  upon  the  polytheistic 
people  of  India.  The  facts,  however,  point  in  the  opposite 
direction.  It  is  doubtful,  indeed,  whether  the  theism  held  by 
the  Mohammedans  is  worthy  to  be  called  a  pure  theism.  St. 
Paul  never  used  a  more  striking  expression  than  when  he 
spoke  of  holding  the  truth  in  unrighteousness,  as  one  of  the 
deplorable  sins  of  bad  men.  It  is  much  better  for  a  nation  to 
have  no  knowledge  of  God  whatever,  than  to  believe  in  his 
existence  and  in  his  supreme  government  of  the  world,  and 
yet  to  hold  this  truth  in  unrighteousness.  Mohammed  taught 
the  Arabs  that  there  was  only  one  God,  which  was  a  great 
truth;  but  he  added  to  his  popular  formula  the  words,  "and 
Mohammed  is  his  prophet,"  which  was  a  great  falsehood.  He 
also  taught  them,  and  illustrated  the  teaching  by  his  own  sin- 
ful life,  that  in  one  or  two  cases  God  sanctified  outrageous  sin 
for  the  sake  of  his  beloved  prophet.  The  theism  taught  by 
him  was  thus  coated  over  with  falsehood,  to  say  nothing  of 


MOHAMMEDANISM.  119 

flagrant  sin,  and  as  such  never  ought  to  be  quoted  as  a  pure 
theism.  The  people  of  India,  it  is  true,  were  accustomed  to 
think  of  their  gods  as  indulging  in  all  manner  of  immoral- 
ities; but  this  was  like  child's  play  when  compared  with  the 
unspeakable  enormity  of  bringing  down  Jehovah  himself  al- 
most to  a  level  of  one  of  the  gods  of  Hindu  mythology. 

Be  the  cause  what  it  may,  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  Mo- 
hammedans brought  with  them  into  India  one  or  two  name- 
less sins,  which  the  Hindus  to  this  day  affirm  had  never  been 
known  in  their  country  before.  As  a  general  rule,  their 
moral  standard  is  a  little  lower  than  that  of  the  Hindus,  and 
the  same  remark  will  have  to  be  made  with  regard  to  their 
general  reputation  for  morality.  Many  good  and  sincere  men, 
no  doubt,  are  found  in  the  Mohammedan  ranks;  but  when  we 
speak  about  the  people  as  a  great  community,  and  compare 
them  with  their  Hindu  neighbors,  the  advantage  certainly 
seems  to  rest  with  the  latter.  In  fairness  I  ought  to  say  that 
some  of  my  missionary  friends  in  India  take  issue  with  me 
on  this  point.  Some  of  them  believe  and  maintain  that  the 
Mohammedans  are  quite  as  good  as,  if  not  better  than,  the 
Hindus  ;  but  I  believe  I  express  the  opinion  of  the  majority — 
and  a  very  large  majority — when  I  say  that  the  Hindus  stand 
higher  in  point  of  moral  character  than  the  Mohammedans, 
and  that  they  have  suffered  rather  than  benefited,  from  a 
moral  point  of  view,  by  the  introduction  of  Mohammedanism 
into  the  country. 

Intelligent  Hindus,  without  exception,  affirm  that  the 
custom  of  secluding  their  women  was  never  known  before  the 
Mohammedan  invasions.  They  say  that  it  became  necessary 
as  a  means  of  protecting  their  wives  and  daughters  when  they 
went  abroad.  If  comely  in  looks,  they  were  in  danger  when- 
ever they  appeared  in  public ;  and  hence  the  custom  was  bor- 
rowed from  the  Mohammedans  themselves,  of  either  shutting 
their  wives  and  daughters  up  at  home,  or  keeping  them 
closely  veiled  when  going  abroad.  The  latter  custom  in  time 
fell  into  disuse,  while  to  the  present  day  all  who  can  possibly 


120  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

afford  to  do  so,  keep  the  female  members  of  their  families 
closely  secluded  in  narrow  quarters  at  home. 

The  Hindus  also  affirm  that  their  custom  of  child-mar- 
riage grew  up  in  consequence  of  the  danger  to  which  they 
were  exposed  from  their  Mohammedan  neighbors.  They  say 
that  so  many  cases  of  outrage  had  occurred,  in  which  a  beau- 
tiful daughter  would  be  forcibly  taken  from  her  parents  and 
married  to  a  Mohammedan,  that  they  adopted  the  custom  of 
child-marriage,  so  that  the  girl  would  have  a  legal  hus- 
band almost  from  infancy,  and  in  this  way  be  protected 
from  Mohammedan  violence.  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that 
this  charge  can  be  satisfactorily  proved,  but  that  it  has  some 
foundation  in  fact  admits  of  very  little  doubt.  In  any  case, 
it  can  hardly  be  maintained  that  the  Mohammedans  have  in 
any  manner  improved  the  condition  of  woman  in  India;  nor 
is  there  anything  in  the  Mohammedan  system  to  which  a 
woman  can  appeal  with  any  interest  or  hope.  Hinduism,  it 
is  true,  is  bad  enough,  so  far  as  the  position  of  woman  is  con- 
cerned ;  and  yet,  when  an  appeal  is  made  to  its  earlier  history, 
the  Hindu  woman  of  to-day  can  point  to  a  golden  age,  when 
women  were  allowed  a  measure  of  liberty  almost  equal  to 
that  enjoyed  by  the  men. 

The  points  of  identity  between  Mohan*  medanisin  and 
Christianity  are  many;  but  it  should  always  be  borne  in  mind 
that  it  was  from  Judaism,  rather  than  from  Christianity,  that 
Mohammed  drew  most  of  the  teachings  which  are  usually 
supposed  to  be  common  to  his  system  and  our  own.  His 
knowledge  of  pure  Christianity  seems  to  have  been  exceed- 
ingly meager,  while  on  the  other  hand  he  had,  no  doubt,  been 
frequently  associated  with  Jews,  and  felt  naturally  drawn 
towards  them  by  reason  of  his  common  descent  writh  them 
from  Abraham.  He  accepted  most  of  the  Old  Testament 
without  question ;  and  the  Mohammedans  to  the  present  day 
readily  admit  that  the  law,  prophets,  psalms,  and  four  gospels 
are  inspired  productions.  They  usually  deny,  however,  that 
the  integrity  of  these  books  has  been  preserved,  and  often,  in 


MOHAMMEDANISM.  121 

disputing  with  missionaries,  affirm  that  the  Christians,  many 
centuries  ago,  so  corrupted  and  changed  their  Scriptures  as  to 
render  them  no  longer  of  any  value.  The  Mohammedans, 
however,  strenuously  deny  nearly  all  the  grand  foundation 
truths  of  the  Christian  system.  The  divinity  of  Christ  is  not 
only  repudiated  by  them,  but  the  very  mention  of  it  is  usually 
enough  to  provoke  their  hostility.  They  deny  not  only  the 
atonement  of  Christ,  but  the  possibility  of  any  atonement ; 
deny  the  necessity  of  any  mediator  between  God  and  man  ;  and 
even  deny  the  very  fact  of  the  crucifixion,  affirming  that  in 
the  supreme  crisis  an  invisible  angel  snatched  the  Lord  Jesus 
from  the  cross,  and  substituted  a  stranger  in  his  place,  who 
actually  died  and  was  laid  in  the  tomb  without  the  spectators 
noticing  the  substitution  which  had  been  effected.  They,  of 
course,  deny  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and,  so  far  as  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  concerned,  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  unable 
to  understand  even  the  statement  of  his  divinity  as  made  by 
Christians.  The  greatest  defect  in  their  religious  system  is 
in  its  want  of  spirituality.  While  they  speak,  with  more  or 
less  freedom,  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  they  never  attach  the 
meaning  to  the  phrase  which  Christians  do.  In  most  of  these 
respects  they  differ  from  the  Hindus,  and,  surprising  as  it  may 
seem  to  the  Christian  reader  in  America,  I  incline  to  the 
opinion  that  Hinduism  has  more  in  common  with  Christian- 
ity than  popular  Mohammedanism.  The  Hindus  are  familiar 
with  the  idea  of  a  divine  incarnation,  however  defective  their 
conception  of  it  may  be.  They  are  also  familiar  with  the 
idea  of  an  atonement ;  and  their  religious  ideas  prepare  them 
to  receive  the  spiritual  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  much 
more  readily  than  the  Mohammedans.  They  are  a  more  spir- 
itual people,  and,  while  hopelessly  bound  hand  and  foot  by 
the  ceremonial  system  which  they  have  inherited,  yet  are  per- 
haps less  formal  than  the  followers  of  Islam. 

The  Mohammedans  have  been  much  less  affected  by  the 
rapid  advance  of  the  modern  world  than  the  Hindus.  Their 
system  is  hopelessly  antagonistic  to  everything  new  and 


122  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

everything  progressive.  The  Hindu  system,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  flexible  at  many  points ;  and  the  result  has  been  that 
since  the  advent  of  the  English  the  Hindus  have  outstripped 
their  Mohammedan  rivals  in  the  educational  race.  This  is 
not  wholly  owing  to  the  obstructive  character  of  the  Moham- 
medan religion,  but  in  part,  no  doubt,  to  a  certain  uncon- 
scious pride  both  of  religion  and  of  race.  For  several  centuries 
they  had  been  the  rulers  of  India.  The  Hindus  had  been 
held  in  utter  subjection  by  them,  and  their  own  promotion 
had  never  depended  upon  their  proficiency  in  learning  the 
language  of  an  alien  people,  a  literature  which  they  despised, 
and  modern  sciences  which,  in  their  eyes,  probably  seemed 
more  or  less  profane. 

This  pride,  however,  if  it  should  be  called  by  this  name, 
is  rapidly  giving  way;  and  of  late  years  many  leading  Mo- 
hammedans have  bestirred  themselves  in  the  most  praise- 
worthy manner  in  trying  to  rouse  their  fellow-religionists  to 
an  appreciation  of  the  danger  in  which  they  stand  of  wholly 
losing  their  prestige  as  a  people.  If  they  remain  stolid  and 
indifferent  for  another  generation,  the  Hindus  will  have  left 
them  hopelessly  in  the  rear.  It  is  not  likely,  however,  that 
they  will  remain  inactive  much  longer.  As  a  people,  they 
are  capable  of  great  things  if  freed  from  their  trammels  and 
rightly  directed.  No  men  in  India,  if  indeed  any  men  in  the 
world,  can  excel  an  educated  Mohammedan  gentleman  of  the 
liberal  class  in  courtesy  and  liberal  dealing.  They  are  gen- 
tlemen in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  refined  in  manner,  pro- 
gressive in  their  ideas,  and  capable  of  playing  a  worthy  part 
in  any  sphere  of  life  to  which  they  may  be  called.  Relig- 
iously, however,  but  few  of  them  retain  a  conscientious  ad- 
herence to  the  faith  of  their  fathers.  It  would  be  impossible 
for  them  to  do  so.  Islam  admits  of  no  compromise;  and 
when  a  young  man  begins  to  acquire  knowledge,  he  must 
choose  between  the  faith  of  his  fathers  and  the  general  agree- 
ment of  the  modern  world  in  the  great  principles  of  progress 
which  are  more  and  more  received  by  all  nations. 


MOHAMMEDANISM.  123 

Christianity  has  much  to  hope  from  the  Mohammedans  in 
India.  Hitherto  they  have  been  our  most  unrelenting  op- 
ponents, and  most  missionaries  would  probably  hesitate  to 
express  much  confidence  in  them  as  a  people,  even  if  they 
should  become  Christians.  I  could  not,  however,  join  in 
such  a  verdict.  I  believe,  on  the  other  hand,  that  when 
truly  converted,  the  Mohammedan  makes  not  only  a  devoted 
Christian,  but  in  some  respects  will  make  a  superior  leader. 
Leadership  is  a  great  want  in  every  mission-field,  and  the 
Mohammedans  of  India  have  the  material,  if  it  can  only  be 
won  for  Christ  and  sanctified  to  his  service,  out  of  which 
splendid  workers  can  be  made  in  the  Master's  vineyard. 


Chapter   IX. 

INDIAN  DEVOTEES. 

AMONG  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  India  may  truly  be 
called  the  home-land  of  the  religious  devotee.  Both 
Mohammedanism  and  Hinduism  are  represented  in  all  parts 
of  the  country  by  men  of  this  class ;  but  the  followers  of 
Islam — properly  called  fakirs,  as  distinguished  from  the 
Hindu  devotee — who  adopt  this  mode  of  life  are  compar- 
tively  few.  The  idea  of  such  a  life  is  essentially  Hindu,  and 
devotees  of  various  classes  seem  to  have  abounded  in  the 
country  since  the  earliest  period.  The  land  was  full  of  them 
at  the  time  that  the  founder  of  Buddhism  began  his  search 
for  mental  and  spiritual  rest;  and  no  doubt,  if  we  could 
catch  a  glimpse  of  India  as  it  was  a  thousand  years  before 
his  day,  the  devotee  would  be  seen  occupying  a  familiar  if  not 
prominent  place. 

The  idea  of  such  a  life  is  based  upon  two  mistaken  no- 
tions. In  the  first  place,  the  ascetic  flatters  himself  that  he 
can,  by  his  penances*  of  various  kinds,  accumulate  merit. 
The  word  penance,  in  his  mind,  conveys  no  idea  of  repent- 
ance whatever,  but  solely  that  of  a  means  of  acquiring  per- 
sonal merit.  In  the  next  place,  he  is  possessed  with  the  idea 
that  matter  is  inherently  evil,  and  that,  since  his  union  with 
a  material  body  is  the  source  of  most  of  his  misfortunes,  he 
must  make  war  on  the  body  in  order  to  liberate  the  soul. 
In  these  two  mistaken  notions  may  be  found  rooted  all  the 
errors  which  cluster  around  the  practice  of  asceticism  in 
India  or  elsewhere. 

The  various  expedients  to  which  men  of  this  class  resort 
in  order  to  realize  their  ideal  are  countless  in  number, 
124 


INDIAN  DE  VO  TEES.  125 

and  as  diverse  in  character  as  possible.  With  the  vast  ma- 
jority, however,  the  discipline  selected  is  by  no  means 
a  severe  one.  It  is  only  in  exceptional  crses  that  we  find 
men  enduring  positive  pain  and  privatk  n,  or  subjecting 
themselves  to  practices  which  must  be  utterly  revolting  to  the 
most  ordinary  human  instincts.  Beyond  a  doubt  large  num- 
bers of  both  sexes  choose  a  life  of  asceticism  because  they  find 
it  the  simplest  and  easiest  way  of  securing  their  daily  bread. 
I  have  personally  known  parties  who,  after  trying  various 
plans  to  secure  a  livelihood,  deliberately  adopted  the  garb 
and  wandering  life  of  the  devotee.  In  one  case  a  native 
Christian,  whose  moral  character  was  not  particularly  objec- 
tionable, was  persistently  averse  to  manual  labor ;  and  when 
one  kind  of  work  after  another  had  been  given  him  to  no 
purpose,  he  was  told  that  he  must  work  or  starve.  He 
declined  to  do  either,  and  deliberately  made  a  profession  of 
faith  in  Hinduism,  threw  a  saffron-colored  sheet  loosely 
around  his  shoulders,  and,  taking  his  wife  and  child  and  de- 
parting three  or  four  miles  from  the  village  where  he  was 
known,  began  the  wandering  life  of  a  devotee.  While  thus 
engaged,  he  chanced  to  meet  a  recruiting  officer  collecting 
coolies  to  send  to  Demarara.  He  listened  to  the  advantages 
of  the  proposed  emigration  to  a  land  where  wages  were  high, 
and  without  much  hesitation  threw  away  his  yellow  robe,  and, 
taking  wife  and  child,  embarked  for  Demarara.  This  man 
was  undoubtedly  a  fair  sample  of  multitudes  who  are  sup- 
posed to  be  holy  men  and  women,  who  have  separated  them- 
selves from  the  world  and  are  pursuing  a  life  of  religious 
contemplation  and  personal  devotion.  Not  all  the  devotees 
of  India,  however,  are  of  this  harmless  and  worthless  class. 
Many  of  them  show  abundant  evidence  that  they  are  sincere 
in  their  purpose,  and  persist,  through  long  lives  of  severe 
suffering  and  privation,  in  faithfully  following  the  course 
which  they  have  chosen.  At  nearly  every  great  fair  a 
number  of  men  will  be  seen  going  through  the  self-inflicted 
torture  of  what  is  called  the  "  five  fires."  Four  fires  are  kept 


126  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

burning  constantly  around  the  devotee,  while  the  sun,  which 
makes  the  fifth,  pours  down  his  burning  rays  upon  the  head 
of  the  sufferer.  Others,  for  months  at  a  time,  never  allow 
themselves  to  lie  down  to  rest,  but  permit  themselves  to  be 
supported  in  a  half-reclining  position,  or  sometimes  sus- 
pended upon  a  cushion,  with  their  feet  dangling  down  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  ground.  Some  sleep  on  beds  made  of  broken 
stone,  others  on  spikes ;  while  others,  again,  seek  torture  for 
the  body  by  abstaining  from  sleep  altogether — or  at  least  re- 
duce their  sleeping  hours  to  the  narrowest  possible  limits. 
The  well-known  custom  of  holding  the  hand  erect  until  it 
becomes  shriveled  and  helpless,  and  retains  its  position 
during  the  rest  of  the  sufferer's  life,  is  not  so  common  as  is 
generally  supposed  in  England  and  America;  and  yet  such 
men  are  to  be  found  in  most  parts  of  the  country.  I  myself 
have  only  seen  a  very  few,  and  have  conversed  with  only  two 
in  more  than  thirty  years.  There  can  be  no  doubt  whatever 
about  the  reality  of  the  suffering  of  such  men.  One  poor 
creature  sat  down  beside  me,  and  described  at  some  length 
the  manner  in  which  he  had  kept  his  arm  in  this  position 
until  it  became  rigid.  He  told  me  he  had  suffered  excru- 
ciatingly for  six  months,  after  which  the  arm  ceased  to  give 
him  pain.  His  arm,  which  was  held  perfectly  upright,  had 
been  kept  in  this  position  for  a  number  of  years — if  I  re- 
member correctly,  eight  or  nine — and  had  shriveled  to  about 
half  its  natural  size.  The  nails  had  grown  to  such  a  length 
that  they  had  twined  themselves  all  around  the  hand,  giving 
it  a  hideous  appearance.  Recently  I  had  occasion  to  publish 
a  notice  in  the  Indian  Witness  asking  parties  who  knew  of 
such  men  to  report  them  to  me ;  and  it  is  a  singular  fact  that 
only  four  responses  were  received.  This  indicates  that  the 
number  of  such  persons  in  the  country  is  comparatively  small.* 

*  The  accompanying  picture  shows  a  man  with  both  hands  held  per- 
fectly upright  till  they  are  as  rigid  as  two  pieces  of  wood.  It  is  copied 
from  a  photograph  taken  at  Ajinere,  about  six  months  ago.  He  is 
faithfully  served  by  the  attendants  who  may  be  seen  beside  him. 


A  HINDU  DRVOTKE. 


INDIAN  DE VO  TEES.  1 29 

AL  very  common  mode  of  practicing  asceticism  is  that  of 
eating  revolting  food.  The  complete  course  of  training 
adopted  by  a  Hindu  devotee,  if  carried  to  its  full  extent, 
involves  one  period  of  discipleship  during  which  the  devotee 
is  obliged  to  eat  everything  which  is  offered  to  him.  I  might 
say  here  that,  according  to  strict  rule,  an  ordinary  Hindu  who 
wishes  to  take  a  full  course  is  obliged  to  pursue  six  different 
kinds  of  asceticism,  each  for  a  term  of  twelve  years,  making 
seventy-two  years  in  all.  As  he  proceeds  in  his  course,  pass- 
ing from  one  degree  to  another,  somewhat  after  the  manner 
of  a  Hindu  Masonic  system,  the  usual  rule  of  the  sinner's 
reward  follows  him.  The  more  faithfully  and  unreservedly 
he  devotes  himself  to  the  discipline  prescribed,  the  more  re- 
volting does  his  life  become,  and  the  more  terrible  his  re- 
ward. During  one  period  of -this  course  he  is  not  only 
allowed  to  eat  everything  which  is  offered  him,  but  is  com- 
pelled to  do  so.  If  he  refuses  anything,  no  matter  how  re- 
volting, he  thereby  forfeits  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the 
credulous  people  around  him,  and  with  it  all  the  merit 
which  he  has  accumulated  by  his  previous  asceticism.  If  I 
had  not  been  in  India,  I  could  not  believe  that  much  which  I 
know  these  men  to  do  could  possibly  be  practiced  by  human 
beings.  The  poor  creatures  can  reject  nothing;  and  when  a 
devout  Hindu — perhaps  a  wealthy  princess,  who  has  sent 
a  thousand  miles  for  a  famous  devotee — wishes  to  obtain 
a  special  favor  through  his  works  of  merit,  she  will  almost 
certainly  assure  herself  of  his  sanctity  by  requiring  a  horrible 
test  of  some  kind  from  him,  from  which  he  dare  not  shrink. 

Many  years  ago  an  old  devotee  lived  in  the  city  of 
Najibabad,  in  Rohilkhand,  who  had  acquired  a  great  reputa- 
tion for  sanctity.  His  house,  which  was  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  city,  was  decorated  with  human  skulls.  His  companions 
were  dogs;  and  his  life,  although  a  quiet  one,  was  destitute 
of  everything  attractive  to  human  life  in  a  world  like  this. 
He  affirmed  that  he  had  gone  through  the  entire  list  of 
austerities  prescribed  in  the  seventy-two  years'  course.  His 

9 


130  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

eye  was  undimmed  and  his  hair  unsilvered,  and  I  always 
doubted  whether  he  was  really  as  old  as  he  supposed  himself 
to  be.  It  is  very  common  for  elderly  Hindus  to  add  ten, 
twenty,  or  even  more  years  to  their  age,  without  intending 
to  deceive.  They  pay  very  little  attention  to  accuracy  in 
such  matters;  and  yet  this  old  man  affirmed  over  and  over 
that  he  had  taken  the  whole  course  of  the  six  degrees,  em- 
bracing seventy-two  years  of  asceticism,  and  the  oldest  peo- 
ple of  the  city  affirmed  that  he  had  been  known  to  them  all 
their  days,  and  that  he  had  been  reckoned  an  old  man  when 
they  first  knew  him.  He  was  a  man  among  a  thousand, 
who  would  have  arrested  attention  in  any  company  or 
among  any  people.  He  was  early  impressed  by  the  preach- 
ing which  he  heard  in  the  city,  and  was  actually  baptized  as 
a  believer  in  Christ.  He  did  not,  however,  leave  his  home, 
nor  put  away  his  dogs,  although,  if  I  remember  correctly, 
he  removed  the  skulls,  and  gave  up  the  revolting  part  of  his 
life.  This  old  man  told  me,  with  the  utmost  particularity, 
that  he  had  eaten  pieces  of  flesh  cut  from  dead  bodies  which 
he' at  times  would  find  floating  down  the  river,  and  this  one 
disgusting  act  did  more  to  raise  him  in  the  estimation  of  the 
credulous  people  of  the  city  than  anything  else  he  had  ever 
done.  This,  however,  was  only  half  the  story.  I  can  not 
put  in  print  other  things  which  he  told  me,  which  I  find  it 
impossible  to  doubt.  I  have  known  missionaries  who,  in 
similar  cases,  were  eye-witnesses  of  the  same  disgusting  rites 
which  he  professed  to  have  performed.  The  reverence  of 
the  common  Hindus  for  all  classes  of  devotees  is  very  great. 
A  man  with  a  shriveled  arm  held  erect  is  an  object  of  con- 
stant adoration  as  he  walks  along  the  road.  Large  numbers 
prostrate  themselves  at  his  feet,  and  that  man  would  be  dar- 
ing indeed  who  hesitated  a  moment  in  obeying  any  com- 
mand he  might  receive  from  such  a  saint.  This  power  over 
the  multitude  would  be  a  dangerous  weapon  in  the  hands  of 
better  men  than  the  devotees ;  but  when  it  is  stated  that  large 
numbers  of  these  fellows  are  the  veriest  scoundrels  that  \valk 


INDIAN  DE  VO  TEES.  131 

the  earth,  the  reader  can  well  understand  how  much  oppres- 
sion they  can  practice  without  endangering  themselves  in 
any  way.  In  former  years  they  were  undisguised  tyrants; 
but  for  many  years  past  the  Indian  Government  has  ceased 
to  pay  them  any  deference  whatever.  If  one  of  the  most 
sacred  of  these  men  violates  the  law  of  the  land,  he  is  pun- 
ished precisely  as  another  man ;  and  this  has  done  much,  not 
only  to  protect  the  people,  but  to  break  the  spell  which  enabled 
'the  devotee  through  long  ages  to  oppress  them  with  impunity. 
The  Hindu  devotee  and  the  Mohammedan  fakir  are  both 
much  given  to  practicing  various  juggling  arts,  as  well  as  to 
fortune-telling  and  the  selling  of  charms  to  ward  off  all 
manner  of  evils  and  secure  all  manner  of  blessings.  Men 
of  this  class  are  generally  without  moral  principle,  and 
Europeans  sometimes  act  most  unwisely  in  allowing  them  to 
amuse  their  children.  A  poor  Christian  woman,  daughter  of 
European  parents,  who  had  lost  her  character,  and  been 
overtaken  by  grievous  misfortune,  once  told  me  that  the 
original  source  of  all  her  misery  had  been  the  plausible 
teaching  of  one  of  these  wandering  fortune-tellers.  He 
practiced  his  little  arts  upon  her  when  a  child  only  five  or 
six  years  of  age,  and  made  his  misfaith  seem  to  her  so  much 
more  real,  direct,  and  positive  than  the  true  faith  of  her 
parents,  that  she  was  practically  led  to  abandon  Christianity 
in  her  early  childhood.  The  blighting  effects  of  the  teach- 
ing of  the  tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  these  devotees 
who  are  wandering  over  India  the  whole  year  round,  must 
be  a  source  of  untold  evil  to  this  hapless  empire.  The  num- 
ber of  such  devotees  is  very  great.  Mr.  Ward,  in  his  work  on 
the  Hindus,  estimated  the  number  in  his  day  at  one-eighth 
of  the  entire  population.  Such  an  estimate  would  be  much 
too  high  for  the  present;  but  as  no  census  will  ever  correctly 
report  all  the  various  shades  and  grades  of  the  people  known 
as  devotees,  it  is  impossible  to  arrive  at  anything  like  cer- 
tainty in  such  a  matter.  The  whole  body  of  these  men  is 
divided  into  two  classes,  the  one  embracing  the  followers  of 


132  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Vishnu,  and  the  other  of  Shiva.  The  latter  has  much  the 
more  numerous  following.  These  Shivaites,  again,  are  divided 
into  a  large  number  of  diverse  orders.  The  Rev.  T.  Phil- 
lips, in  his  "  Missionary  Manual,"  gives  a  list  of  seventeen 
different  classes  of  ascetics  belonging  to  the  Shivaite  school. 
Among  these  classes  are  found  men  of  a  certain  order  who 
profess  to  have  so  far  subdued  the  body  as  to  be  insensible  to 
physical  pain.  These  men  are  generally  among  the  most 
tyrannical  to  be  found  in  the  country.  In  one  somewhat  remote 
district,  the  first  Commissioner  who  was  placed  in  authority 
when  the  English  took  over  that  part  of  the  country  from  the 
Hindu  prince  who  had  formerly  ruled  it,  continued  to  main- 
tain the  former  regime  in  every  particular.  The  customs  of 
the  people  were  not  interfered  with  in  any  respect.  This  was 
all  well  enough  so  far  as  the  customs  were  in  themselves  in- 
offensive; but  from  the  first  the  English  in  India  have  found 
it  impossible  to  maintain  the  entire  Hindu  system  in  all  its 
integrity.  Some  of  its  features  are  so  outrageous  in  their 
operation,  that  the  most  conservative  magistrate  who  ever  sat 
upon  an  Indian  bench  could  not  uphold  them  without  at 
least  some  reservation.  In  the  district  under  notice,  how- 
ever, the  first  Commissioner  thought  it  best  not  to  interfere 
in  any  way  with  the  wandering  devotees,  who  chanced  in 
that  particular  district  to  be  among  the  very  worst  of  their 
class.  The  precedent  thus  established  was  continued  for 
some  years;  but  finally  a  Commissioner  assumed  charge  who 
determined  to  put  a  stop  to  the  extortion  and  oppression  of 
the  whole  devotee  tribe,  wrho  were  popularly  known  in  that 
district  as  Jogis.  This  word,  by  the  way,  which  is  sometimes 
applied  to  a  better  class  of  men,  and  which  in  its  rigid  sig- 
nification is  distinctive  of  only  one  class  of  devotees,  is 
popularly  used  in  many  parts  of  the  country  to  describe  all 
the  half-naked  WTetches  who  wander  over  the  country, 
whether  belonging  to  one  class  or  another.  The  Com- 
missioner issued  a  notice,  and  had  it  distributed  widely 
throughout  the  district,  to  the  effect  that  hereafter  all  the 


INDIAN  DE  VO  TEES.  1 33 

Jogis  would  be  punished  for  their  crimes  in  precisely  the 
same  way  as  other  criminals.  Shortly  afterward,  while  a 
villager  was  driving  in  his  cows  from  the  pasture,  one  of  these 
men  went  up  to  a  cow,  seized  her  by  the  tail,  and,  with  a 
stroke  of  the  short  sword  which  he  carried,  cut  off  the  tail  and 
took  it  home  to  prepare  it  for  his  supper.  The  outrage  was 
a  grievous  one ;  for  every  Hindu  regards  the  cow  as  a  sacred 
animal,  while  the  owner  of  the  cow  is  often  made  to  suffer  for 
any  mishap  which  occurs  to  the  animal.  The  Jogi  wished 
to  show  that  he  was  able  to  eat  anything,  no  matter  how  re- 
volting or  how  sacred  it  might  be.  The  owner  of  the  cow, 
notwithstanding  his  reverence  for  the  holy  man,  entered  a 
complaint  against  him  for  the  outrage.  He  was  brought  into 
court,  and  sentenced  to  twelve  lashes.  The  bystanders  were 
startled  and  shocked  at  the  idea  of  so  holy  a  man  being 
punished.  "You  may  beat  me,"  he  said  to  the  magistrate, 
"  but  it  will  make  no  difference  to  me.  I  never  feel  pain. 
My  body  has  long  since  ceased  to  feel  any  pain  whatever." 
"  That  makes  no  difference,"  said  the  magistrate,  "  you  will 
receive  twelve  lashes  all  the  same."  They  were  given  on  the 
spot.  When  the  flogging  was  over,  the  devotee  said,  in  a  de- 
fiant way:  "You  have  flogged  me,  I  suppose;  but  I  know 
nothing  about  it.  I  have  not  felt  a  stroke  of  the  lash." 
"  Very  well,"  said  the  magistrate,  "  since  you  have  not  felt 
any  pain,  you  will  not  object  to  taking  twelve  more,"  which 
were  ordered  to  be  inflicted  at  once.  The  devotee  remained 
as  defiant  as  before.  "  You  may  have  flogged  me,  but  if  so 
I  did  not  feel  it.  I  never  feel  pain.  I  have  overcome  that 
altogether."  "  Very  well,"  said  the  magistrate,  "  it  will 
make  no  difference  to  you;  so  you  shall  have  a  third  dozen," 
which  were  at  once  ordered  to  be  given.  The  devotee  per- 
sisted that  he  felt  no  pain ;  but  when  the  order  for  the  fourth 
dozen  was  given,  he  gave  in,  and  begged  to  be  released.  The 
spell  was  broken.  The  poor  fellow  had  not  suffered  in  vain, 
when  it  became  known  that  the  supposed  holy  men  were, 
after  all,  men  of  flesh  and  blood  like  others. 


134  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

The  severe  and  public  example  made  of  this  poor  man 
did  not  suffice,  however,  to  impress  the  rest  of  the  brother- 
hood with  a  sense  of  the  terrors  of  the  law.  A  little  later 
another  member  of  the  fraternity,  with  matted  hair  and  with 
his  almost  naked  body  smeared  all  over  with  ashes,  entered 
the  leading  street  of  the  town,  and  began  to  assess  a  tax.  or 
fine  of  two  rupees  upon  each  shop.  He  had  fixed  upon  a 
certain  sum  of  money  with  which  he  wished  to  buy  a  horse, 
and  having  always  been  accustomed  to  the  exercise  of  un- 
questioned tyranny,  he  determined  to  raise  the  money  by 
levying  a  forced  tax  upon  the  shop-keepers  of  the  town. 
His  process  was  exceedingly  simple.  Taking  some  filth  in 
his  hand,  he  threatened  to  pollute  the  doorway  of  each  shop, 
and  thereby  destroy  the  value  of  everything  in  it  to  the 
caste-observing  people,  unless  the  money  demanded  were  in- 
stantly paid  by  the  owner.  When  the  story  of  his  extortion 
reached  this  same  magistrate,  he  at  once  ordered  the  man's 
arrest.  The  devotee,  nothing  daunted,  appeared  in  the 
magistrate's  court,  and  at  once  admitted  the  truth  of  the 
charge  laid  against  him.  As  he  was  defiant  in  manner,  and 
his  offense  had1  been  a  very  grave  one,  he  was  sentenced  to  a 
year's  imprisonment.  "  Very  well,"  said  the  defiant  devotee, 
"you  may  send  me  to  prison  if  you  choose,  but  I  warn  you 
beforehand  that  I  shall  never  eat  or  drink  after  entering  the 
prison.  I  shall  die  of  starvation,  and  with  my  dying  breath 
I  shall  curse  you,  your  wife,  children,  grandchildren,  and 
great-grandchildren,  all  of  whom  will  bear  the  curse  of  a  dev- 
otee while  they  live."  Nothing  could  have  been  more  ter- 
rible, in  the  estimation  of  the  common  people  of  the  town, 
than  a  threat  uttered  by  such  a  man,  and  couched  in  such 
language  as  this.  "  You  may  curse  away,"  calmly  replied 
the  magistrate,  "as  long  as  you  please.  That  is  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  me.  But  whether  you  curse  or  not,  you  .shall 
go  to  prison  for  one  year."  He  was  sent  off  accordingly  and 
locked  up ;  but  day  after  day  the  jailer  brought  word  that  he 
was  adhering  to  his  purpose,  and  rigidly  abstaining  from  food 


INDIAN  DEVOTEES.  135 

and  drink.  The  magistrate  paid  no  attention  whatever  to 
the  daily  reports  brought  him,  until  at  last,  on  the  eighth 
morning,  the  jailer  came  to  say  that  the  old  devotee  seemed 
near  his  end.  "  He  has  tasted  neither  food  nor  drink,"  he 
said,  "  since  the  moment  he  entered  the  prison,  and  he  adheres 
to  his  purpose.  He  told  me  only  this  morning  that  he  will  curse 
you  with  his  dying  breath,  according  to  his  threat."  The  mag- 
istrate calmly  called  for  pen  and  paper  and  wrote  an  order  in 
the  dialect  of  the  place,  which  the  jailer  could  read,  in  which 
he  directed  the  proper  officer  of  the  prison  to  take  the  body 
of  the  devotee  as  soon  as  he  died,  have  it  wrapped  in  a  cow's 
hide,  carried  out  by  low-caste  men,  and  buried  outside  the 
city  walls.  This  was  an  order  hardly  less  terrible  than  the 
threats  of  the  devotee.  In  the  first  place,  the  Hindus,  with 
few  exceptions,  burn  instead  of  bury  their  dead.  In  the  next 
place,  the  touch  of  a  cow's  hide  would  be  contaminating; 
while,  lastly,  the  indignity  of  being  carried  to  his  grave  by 
low-caste  men  carried  with  it  indelible  disgrace.  The  jailer 
returned  to  the  famished  and  almost  dying  devotee,  and  not 
only  reported  the  result  of  the  interview,  but  showed  him 
the  order.  He  glanced  at  it  a  moment,  and  then  said :  "  Get  me 
something  to  eat  quickly,  before  I  die."  His  spell  also  was 
broken,  and  no  more  was  heard  of  his  threats  or  his  curses. 

One  or  two  more  examples  put  an  end  to  the  outrageous 
conduct  of  this  class  of  men,  and  now  they  are  as  amenable 
to  the  laws  of  the  land  as  any  other  people  of  the  province. 

Every  year  or  two  a  story  goes  the  rounds  of  the  Ameri- 
can papers  to  the  effect  that  some  of  these  wonderful  dev- 
otees of  India  are  able  to  make  themselves  unconscious,  or 
rather  inanimate,  and  in  this  state  be  buried  alive  and  left 
in  the  grave  for  days,  and  even  months,  after  which  they  are 
restored  to  life  again.  I  quote  the  following  from  the  New 
York  Mail  and  Express: 

"Much  has  been  written  of  late  about  the  capacity  of  frogs  to 
live  for  years  in  rocks.  Of  much  greater  interest,  however,  is  the 
fact  that  human  beings  can  also  lie  for  months  buried  under  ground 


136  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

and  then  be  brought  to  life  again.  Such  phenomenal  beings  are 
not,  of  course,  found  on  this  continent  or  in  Europe,  but  in  India, 
that  veritable  realm  of  wonder-working.  A  German  writer  has 
recently  written  a  very  interesting  essay  on  the  capacity,  often 
proved,  of  Indian  fakirs  to  let  themselves  be  buried  for  longer  or 
shorter  ^periods,  and  to  come  to  life  again,  smiling,  after  the  ordeal." 

I  have  repeatedly  met  with  statements  of  this  char- 
acter ;  and  some  years  ago  Dr.  Buckley,  who  takes  a  special 
interest  in  researches  of  this  kind,  wrote  to  me  to  know  how 
far  my  own  observation  had  corroborated  stories  of  the  kind. 
I  had  in  a  general  way  heard  such  stories,  but  never  have 
met  with  a  single  case,  well  attested  or  otherwise.  I  began 
at  once  to  make  inquiries,  and  was  repeatedly  told  that  such 
cases  did  actually  occur;  but  after  trying  in  vain  to  run  down 
even  one  of  the  floating  stories  which  reached  my  ears,  I 
gave  up  the  task  as  hopeless.  The  man  who  is  able  to  do  it 
always  lives  a  good  many  hundred  miles  distant.  The  name 
of  his  town  or  village  can  never  be  given.  The  exact  place 
and  time  at  which  he  performed  the  semi-miracle  are  never 
known.  In  short,  there  is  never  anything  but  the  most 
vague  of  shadowy  rumors  on  which  to  build  such  a  story. 
So  far  as  the  stories  which  reach  Europe  and  America  are  con- 
cerned, they  may  one  and  all  be  traced  to  the  history  of  a 
man  named  Hari  Das,  who  belonged  to  Cashmere,  or  possi- 
bly the  Tanjab,  and  submitted  himself  to  be  buried  alive  in 
the  presence  of  Ranjit  Singh,  in  the  year  1837.  The  author- 
ity almost  invariably  quoted  for  this  statement  is  Dr.  John 
Martin  Honiberger,  formerly  physician  at  the  court  of  Ranjit 
Singh,  then  ruler  of  the  Sikhs.  I  was  personally  acquainted 
with  Dr.  Honiberger  about  thirty  years  ago,  and  had  every 
reason  to  esteem  him  as  a  man  of  veracity  and  integrity. 
He  was  at  that  time  very  old,  but  with  a  retentive  memory 
and  clear  judgment.  So  far  as  his  testimony  to  an  occur- 
rence which  he  had  seen  is  concerned,  I  should  not  hesitate 
for  a  moment  to  receive  it  without  question ;  but  when  I  ex- 
amine the  story  itself,  I  find  it  far  from  satisfactory.  Dr. 


INDIAN  DEVOTEES.  137 

Honiberger  never  witnessed  anything  of  the  kind.  He  says 
that  he  returned  from  a  furlough  in  Europe  in  1839,  and  on 
the  voyage  out  he  had  as  a  traveling  companion  General  Ven- 
tura, who  was  at  that  time  in  the  service  of  Ranjit  Siogh. 
In  the  course  of  the  voyage  General  Ventura  told  him  that 
during  his  absence  some  wonderful  things  had  taken  place 
at  Lahore;  that,  among  other  things,  a  fakir  from  the 
mountains  had  been  able  to  place  himself  in  a  state  re- 
sembling death,  and  while  in  this  condition  was  buried,  and 
when  disinterred  returned  to  life  again.  Dr.  Honiberger 
says,  after  speaking  of  Hari  Das  as  having  thrown  himself 
into  a  hypnotic  or  unconscious  state:  "He  was  wrapped  in 
the  linen  on  which  he  was  sitting;  the  seal  of  Ranjit  Singh 
was  stamped  thereon,  and  it  was  placed  in  a  chest,  on  which 
the  Maharaja  put  a  strong  lock.  The  chest  was  buried  in  a 
garden  outside  the  city,  belonging  to  the  minister;  barley 
was  sown  on  the  ground,  and  the  space  inclosed  with  a  wall 
and  surrounded  by  sentinels.  On  the  fortieth  day,  which 
was  the  time  fixed  for  his  exhumation,  a  great  number  of 
the  authorities  of  the  durbar,  with  General  Ventura  and 
several  Englishmen  from  the  vicinity,  one  of  them  a 
medical  man,  went  to  the  inclosure.  The  chest  was  brought 
up  and  opened,  and  the  fakir  was  found  in  the  same  posi- 
tion as  they  had  left  him,  cold  and  stiff.  A  friend  of  mine 
told  me  that  had  I  been  present  when  they  endeavored  to 
bring  him  to  life,  by  applying  warmth  to  the  head,  injecting 
air  into  his  ears  and  mouth,  and  rubbing  the  whole  of  his 
body  to  promote  circulation,  etc.,  I  should  certainly  not  have 
had  the  slightest  doubt  as  to  the  reality  of  the  performance. 
The  minister,  Raja  Dhyam  Singh,  assured  me  that  he  him- 
self kept  this  fakir  four  months  under  the  ground  when  he 
was  at  Jummoo  in  the  mountains.  On  the  day  of  his  burial 
he  ordered  his  beard  to  be  shaved,  and  at  his  exhumation 
his  chin  was  as  smooth  as  on  the  day  of  his  interment,  thus 
furnishing  a  complete  proof  of  the  powers  of  vitality  having 
been  suspended  during  that  period." 


138  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

The  same  story  is  related  by  one  or  two  other  writers ; 
but  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  we  have  it  only  as  hearsay. 
Dr.  Honiberger  himself  did  not  witness  this  wonderful 
scene.  It  is  also  stated  that  the  man  Hari  Das  had  a  bad 
reputation,  and  that  his  moral  character  was  of  the  worst  de- 
scription. There  is  nothing  incredible  in  the  statement  that 
he  threw  himself  into  a  state  which  resembled  death.  That 
can  be  done  by  many  men,  both  in  India  and  elsewhere.  Nor 
is  it  incredible  that  he  was  buried  in  the  presence  of  Ranjit 
Singh.  There,  however,  the  admissions  must  cease.  It  is 
perfectly  credible  that  the  body  was  removed  from  the  grave 
almost  immediately  after  the  guard  had  been  set.  Large 
numbers  of  these  devotees  are  accomplished  jugglers;  but  we 
need  not  assume  that  any  real  deception  was  used  in  this  case. 
A  very  moderate  bribe  would  accomplish  all  that  was  neces- 
sary. The  story  of  the  barley  being  sown  over  the  ground 
was  probably  a  later  addition  to  the  original  statement.  So 
also  with  regard  to  the  interment  lasting  four  months.  The 
statement  was  made  to  Dr.  Honiberger  by  an  officer  of  Ranjit 
Singh ;  and  even  if  we  assume  that  this  gentleman  intended 
to  tell  the  truth,  he  was  no  doubt  credulous  to  the  last  de- 
gree, and  perhaps  noticed  that  he  had  a  sympathetic  hearer 
in  the  person  of  Dr.  Honiberger. 

The  weak  point  in  the  whole  story,  however,  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  a  little  later  an  English  officer  proposed  to  Hari 
Das  that  he  try  an  experiment  by  allowing  himself  to  be 
locked  up  in  a  strong  box,  suspended  from  the  ceiling  of  a 
room,  so  that  the  white  ants  could  not  possibly  reach  the  box 
and  endanger  his  safety,  and  remain  for  a  specified  time  in 
the  box,  while  the  officer  in  question  held  the  key.  To  this 
Hari  Das  would  not  for  one  moment  consent.  The  key,  no 
matter  what  happened,  must  be  in  the  hands  of  his  chosen 
friends.  Dr.  Honiberger  states  that  many  Englishmen  lost 
confidence  in  his  pretensions,  because  of  his  unwillingness  to 
have  the  experiment  tried  with  reasonable  safeguards  to  test 
its  reality.  When  we  remember  that  the  whole  occurrence 


INDIAN  DE  VO  TEES.  1 39 

took  place  more  than  fifty  years  ago,  that  all  India  has  been 
searched  over  and  over  in  vain  for  another  man  who  can  ac- 
complish the  same  wonderful  feat,  and  that  only  one  case 
has  yet  been  located  so  that  even  the  most  cursory  examina- 
tion of  the  alleged  feat  could  be  made,  the  reader  will  no 
doubt  hesitate  to  believe  so  extraordinary  a  story.  From 
the  first  the  Indian  jugglers  and  the  Indian  devotees  have 
been  practically  one  and  the  same,  and  it  is  from  this  ex- 
tremely doubtful  source  that  Theosophy  has  drawn  most  of 
its  wonders  and  all  its  traditions.  Our  friends  in  America 
need  not  trouble  their  minds  about  people  in  India  having 
learned  how  to  bury  themselves  alive,  and  remain  in  the 
grave  four  months,  forty  days,  or  any  lesser  period.  Thus 
far  the  assertion  that  such  a  wonder  has  actually  occurred 
rests  upon  an  exceedingly  slender  foundation. 

As  intimated  above,  the  moral  tone  of  the  Indian  dev- 
otees, taking  them  as  a  class,  is  very  low.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise  when  so  many  of  those  who  adopt  this  kind  of  life 
as  a  profession  are  insincere  in  their  lives,  and  given  to  vari- 
ous modes  of  deception.  Many  of  them,  under  the  im- 
pression that  they  must  separate  their  minds  and  hearts  as 
far  as  possible  from  all  worldly  things,  adopt  a  listless  manner, 
which  makes  them  seem  simple  almost  to  the  point  of  idiocy. 
In  conversation  they  try  to  appear  as  artless  as  little  children, 
and  carefully  avoid  showing  any  of  the  wisdom  of  this  world, 
even  with  regard  to  the  most  ordinary  affairs.  Some  men 
of  this  class  are  very  harmless,  while  others  are  much 
less  artless  than  they  seem  to  be.  Many,  again,  are  given 
to  the  use  of  opium  and  other  drugs  peculiar  to  India.  It 
is  probable  that  most  of  these  are  driven  to  the  use  of  in- 
toxicating or  stupefying  drugs  for  the  sake  of  lessening  phys- 
ical pain  or  weariness.  The  poor  creatures  are  [often  almost 
naked,  even  in  the  coldest  weather  of  North  India.  At 
other  seasons  they  are  exposed  to  the  burning  rays  of  the 
sun  all  day  long;  and  at  all  seasons,  when  upon  their  long 
pilgrimages,  or  when  enduring  any  of  the  many  forms  of 


140  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

physical  discomfort  to  which  they  subject  themselves,  they 
must  be  sorely  tempted  to  seek  relief  in  the  opium  which 
dulls  their  senses  or  puts  them  to  sleep,  or  in  various  drugs 
which  produce  the  effects  of  ordinary  intoxication.  And 
yet,  while  the  general  character  of  the  devotees  as  a  class 
by  no  means  stands  high,  I  have  long  since  become  convinced 
that  many  of  them  are  not  only  sincere,  but,  according  to 
their  light,  blameless  and  harmless  in  ordinary  life.  From 
among  these  we  occasionally  succeed  in  winning  Christian 
converts,  some  of  whom  have  become  valuable  preachers  of 
the  Word.  When  I  lived  in  Xorth  India,  about  twenty  years 
ago,  I  had  for  some  time  two  most  valuable  preachers  who 
had  formerly  been  wandering  devotees.  Both  of  them  had 
been  led  in  the  first  place,  in  their  approaches  to  Christianity, 
by  a  sincere  desire  for  the  truth ;  and  one  of  them  affirmed 
that  he  had  been  directed  by  a  remarkable  dream,  in  which 
a  stranger  clad  in  white  appeared  to  him,  and  bade  him  go 
to  the  missionaries  in  Moradabad,  and  seek  the  truth  as  they 
would  point  it  out  to  him.  He  had  six  disciples,  all  of 
whom  accompanied  him;  but  when  they  began  to  learn  what 
a  Christian  life  meant,  and  what  would  be  required  of  them 
if  they  became  Christians,  the  whole  six  took  summary  leave 
of  their  master.  The  leader,  however,  remained  steadfast, 
and  after  many  years  of  faithful  labor,  died  at  his  post  as  a 
preacher  of  the  gospel. 


CJ>apber  X. 
NEW  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS. 

THE  combined  influence  of  missionary  teaching  and 
English  education,  together  with  constant  contact  with 
Western  ideas,  at  an  early  day  began  to  shake  the  confi- 
dence of  educated  men  in  India,  especially  young  men,  in 
their  old  religious  systems,  and  create  a  spirit  of  more  or  less 
earnest  inquiry  among  them.  These  causes  are  still  in  .opera- 
tion, and  every  day  the  number  of  those  who  have  cut  loose 
from  their  ancient  moorings,  and  who  avow  themselves  "  ad- 
vanced/' "  progressive,"  "  educated,"  or  "  liberal "  Hindus 
increases.  This  constant  tendency,  of  course,  prepares  the 
way  for  a  better  defined  and  wider  movement  in  the  future, 
but  thus  far  has  only  crystallized  in  two  well-defined  and 
organized  efforts  to  construct  a  religious  system  better  than 
Hinduism,  and  yet  distinct  from  Christianity.  The  Brahmo 
Somaj  of  Bengal,  and  the  Arya  Somaj  of  North  India,  have 
both  secured  public  attention,  and  are  trying  to  provide 
India  with  an  Indian  religion  better  suited  to  its  peculiar 
wants  than  Christianity,  and  even  better  than  Christianity 
itself.  The  Hindu  Tract  Society  of  South  India  might  pos- 
sibly be  mentioned  as  a  third  organization  of  the  same  kind ; 
but  both  in  its  aims  and  animating  spirit  it  falls  so  far  be- 
low the  North  India  movements  as  to  be  unworthy  of  men- 
tion in  the  same  connection. 

The  Brahmo  Somaj  of  Bengal  has  become  well  known, 
not  only  in  India,  but  in  Europe  and  America,  chiefly  through 
the  writings  and  published  addresses  of  the  late  Keshub 
Chunder  Sen.  It  owes  its  original  foundation  chiefly  to  the 
well-known  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  a  cultured  and  able  Bengali 

141 


142  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

gentleman  of  the  last  generation,  who  was  one  of  the  first 
Indians  to  visit  England  and  secure  a  large  degree  of  atten- 
tion in  that  country.  He  began  his  career  early  in  the 
present  century,  and  for  the  most  part  kept  nearer  to  the 
Christian  standard  than  most  of  his  followers  have  done. 
When  in  England  he  identified  himself  so  closely  with  the 
Unitarians  that  he  has  often  been  claimed  by  them  as  one  of 
their  own  number.  A  few  extracts  from  his  letters  or  writings 
have  been  produced  from  time  to  time  which  indicate  that 
at  heart  he  was,  at  times  at  least,  practically  a  Christian  both 
in  his  belief  and  feelings.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  he 
never  made  a  formal  profession  of  Christianity,  and  died  as 
he  had  lived,  a  professed  Hindu.  He  believed  that  a  great 
deal  of  truth  was  found  in  the  Vedas,  the  most  ancient  of 
the  Hindu  writings,  and  before  his  death  gathered  round  him 
a  few  followers  in  Calcutta,  who  discarded  the  later  accre- 
tions of  the  Hindu  system,  and  tried  to  establish  their  re- 
ligious faith  upon  the  foundation  of  the  more  ancient  and 
purer  teachings  of  the  Vedas. 

The  chief  man  among  these  early  followers  of  Ram 
Mohun  Roy  was  a  devout  and  able  Bengali  gentleman  named 
Debendro  Xath  Tagore,  who  became  the  leader  of  the  little 
flock,  and  for  a  long  time  remained  its  most  active  and  in- 
fluential member.  Under  his  direction  an  attempt  was  made 
to  form  a  national  creed,  and  the  movement  assumed  a  more 
definite  form  as  distinct  from  Hinduism,  instead  of  still  re- 
taining a  formal  connection  with  it.  The  earnest  but  too 
sanguine  men.  who  joined  in  this  undertaking  hoped  to  lead 
a  great  reform  movement,  which  in  time  would  supplant 
Hinduism  altogether,  and  give  back  to  India  the  simple  faith 
of  the  earliest  Aryan  settlers.  In  order  to  succeed  in  this 
attempt,  they  adopted  a  kind  of  religious  eclecticism,  pro- 
fessing to  draw  from  all  religious  freely  whatever  was  needed 
to  complete  their  own  creed.  About  the  time  that  Theodore 
Parker  was  at  the  zenith  of  his  fame  and  influence  in  Boston, 
his  teachings  through  some  source  reached  these  ardent 


NE  W  RELIGIO  US  MO  VEMENTS.  143 

reformers  in  Calcutta,  and  for  a  period  of  perhaps  ten  years 
influenced  them  very  profoundly.  The  writings  of  F.  "W. 
Newman,  of  England,  a  man  of  kindred  spirit  with  Parker, 
also  fell  into  their  hands,  and  indeed  Mr.  Newman  himself 
was  at  one  time  in  personal  communication  with  them.  I 
once  read  a  letter  which  he  had  addressed  to  them  as  a  body, 
in  which  he  warned  them  solemnly  and  earnestly  against  the 
missionaries,  who  would  mislead  them  if  listened  to,  and 
urged  them  to  look  for  the  light  and  inspiration  which  they 
needed  in  their  own  hearts  and  minds.  From  these  teachers 
the  reformers  in  Calcutta  learned  some  good,  and  also  some 
very  dangerous  lessons.  Among  the  latter,  the  error  which 
led  them  ultimately  into  the  most  serious  mistakes  grew  out 
of  the  transcendental  idea  of  inner  illumination,  by  which 
they  understood  much  more  than  Mr.  Parker  would  have 
deliberately  taught  them.  They  were  made  to  believe  that 
all  men  were  alike  illuminated  by  the  Spirit  of  God;  but  the 
word  illumination  was  never  defined  to  them  with  sufficient 
clearness,  and  in  the  minds  of  many  soon  became  a  mere 
synonym  for  fancy. 

The  word  "Somaj"  in  Bengali  literally  means  an  as- 
sembly, and  is  equivalent  to  the  Greek  term  which  we  trans- 
late by  the  English  word  "church."  The  term  "Brahmo" 
may  be  taken  as  meaning  "  divine."  Joseph  Cook  has  trans- 
lated the  two  words  as  meaning  "God  Society,"  but  in  se- 
lecting the  word  "Somaj,"  the  early  founders  of  the  system 
no  doubt  sought  for  an  exact  equivalent  of  the  English  word 
church,  thereby  affording  a  curious  illustration  of  the  manner 
in  which  they  unconsciously  borrowed  from  Christianity 
nearly  everything  that  pertained  to  their  organization  as  a 
church.  In  their  own  writings,  especially  in  more  recent 
years,  they  constantly  use  the  word  church,  giving  it  almost 
the  same  signification  which  Christians  do,  save  that  they 
apply  it  to  an  organization  which  is  not  Christian.  While 
for  the  most  part  denying  that  they  are  indebted,  to  any  ma- 
teria?  extent,  to  the  Christian  missionaries  for  any  of  their 


144  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

doctrines,  or  for  any  part  of  their  organization,  yet,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  they  have  unconsciously  been  walking  in  the 
reflected  light  of  Christianity  since  the  very  first. 

In  the  year  1859  a  young  man  began  to  assume  a  promi- 
nent place  in  the  Somaj  at  Calcutta,  who  was  destined  to  af- 
fect its  fortunes  more  directly  than  any  one  else  who  had  ap- 
peared in  its  history.  This  young  man  of  twenty-one  was 
the  well-known  Keshub  Chunder  Sen.  He  was  a  man  sin- 
gularly gifted  in  many  respects,  having  a  fine  personal  pres- 
ence, a  most  amiable  and  winning  disposition,  a  clear  and 
cultured  mind,  a  warm  and  affectionate  heart,  and  gifted 
with  a  power  of  popular  eloquence  which  placed  him  in  the 
very  front  rank  of  all  modern  Indians.  He  was  at  once 
surrounded  by  a  band  of  devoted  followers,  and  became  the 
leader  of  a  reform  party  within  the  Somaj  itself.  Heretofore, 
while  in  words  condemning  caste,  child-marriage,  enforced 
widowhood,  and  other  wrongs  of  the  Hindu  system,  no  de- 
termined effort  had  been  made  to  free  the  members  of  the 
Somaj  themselves  from  personal  connection  with  these  abuses. 
The  young  reformers  began  to  demand  immediate  action, 
and  themselves  set  the  example  by  breaking  caste,  and  openly 
protesting  against  all  the  ancient  abuses  of  the  Hindu  sys- 
tem. They  were  possibly  a  little  more  zealous  than  wise  in 
their  efforts ;  but  be  that  as  it  may,  a  rupture  soon  occurred ; 
and  in  1860  Mr.  Sen,  writh  a  large  majority  of  the  whole 
Somaj,  withdrew  and  organized  what  was  called  the  Brahmo 
Somaj  of  India.  With  the  organization  of  this  new  body, 
Mr.  Sen  at  once  became  a  prominent  leader,  and  from  that 
time  till  his  death  in  1884  no  man  in  India  was  more  promi- 
nently before  the  public,  especially  the  religious  public,  and 
none  exerted  a  wider  influence  among  the  better  educated 
classes. 

Mr.  Sen  and  his  followers  were  extremely  sanguine  of 
success  when  they  organized  the  Brahmo  Somaj  of  India, 
and  sincerely  believed  that  by  the  aid  of  their  free  eclecticism 
they  had  laid  down  a  basis  upon  which  all  earnest  servants 


NE  W  RELIGIO  US  MO  VEMENTS.  145 

of  God  could  unite.  They  denounced  dogmas  and  creeds, 
and  seemed  honestly  unconscious  of  the  fact  that  in  doing  so 
they  were  laying  down  a  definite  creed,  and  teaching  dogmas 
which  their  followers  would  tenaciously  hold  for  generations 
to  come.  They  denounced  sectarianism  constantly,  and  made 
this  one  of  the  most  prominent  points  in  their  public  ad- 
dresses, unconscious  all  the  time  that  they  were  introducing 
one  new  sect  into  Brahmoism,  and  one  new  sectarian  body 
into  the  religious  world.  In  this  respect  they  were  neither 
better  nor  worse  than  many  honest  Christians,  who,  while 
constantly  preaching  against  sectarianism,  and  withdrawing 
from  all  other  religious  associations  in  order  to  protest 
against  it,  succeed  merely  in  forming  one  additional  sect,  and 
often  a  very  insignificant  and  useless  one  at  that.  It  is  a- 
curious  comment  upon  the  mistake  into  which  these  earnest 
men  fell  at  that  period,  that  Brahmoism  has  already  divided 
into  no  less  than  four  different  bodies,  each  of  which,  unfor- 
tunately, must  bear  a  sectarian  name  before  the  public. 

In  the  course  of  time,  Mr.  Sen  made  rapid  changes  in  his 
own  views,  and  began  to  introduce  so  many  new  features 
into  the  Brahmo  Church  that  no  little  ferment  was  occa- 
sioned among  his  followers.  He  wholly  rejected  Parkerism 
after  a  very  few  years,  and  seemed  to  perceive  very  clearly 
what  was  deficient  in  Mr.  Parker's  teaching.  He  became 
more  spiritual  and  more  earnest  in  denouncing  the  great 
wrongs  of  the  Hindu  system.  His  influence  with  the  Indian 
Government  enabled  him  to  secure  the  enactment  of  .a  mar- 
riage act,  which  was  essentially  Christian  in  its  features,  for 
the  Brahmo  people.  It  was  the  enactment  of  a  practical 
protest  against  child-marriage  and  enforced  widowhood. 
This  reform,  however,  was  not  secured  without  determined 
opposition,  and  soon  indications  appeared  that  another  rup- 
ture in  the  community  might  occur  at  any  time.  Mr.  Sen 
had  unfortunately  accepted,  without  any  qualification,  the 
doctrine  of  immediate  inspiration ;  and  drawing  no  distinc- 
tion whatever  between  this  and  the  ordinary  illumination  of 

10 


146  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

the  Spirit  which  is  given  to  all,  he  regarded  himself  as  an  in- 
spired man,  not  only  in  respect  to  points  of  doctrine,  but  in 
regard  to  all  ordinary  conduct.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  only 
one  step  remained  between  the  acceptance  of  this  dangerous 
belief  and  the  assumption  of  practical  infallibility.  Now 
and  then  Christian  men  of  very  considerable  culture  fall  into 
the  same  mistake,  and  hence  we  should  not  judge  Mr.  Sen 
too  harshly.  All  our  charity,  however,  can  not  explain  away 
the  fact  that  at  a  critical  moment,  when  called  upon  to  de- 
cide a  question  of  the  utmost  importance  both  to  himself  and 
to  the  Indian  public,  he  had  recourse  to  prayer,  and,  believ- 
ing that  he  had  received  a  direct  order  from  God,  he  made  a 
decision  which  most  of  his  followers  regarded  as  wrong,  both 
on  moral  and  legal  grounds.  This  led  to  an  immediate  se- 
cession of  a  very  large  body,  including  some  of  the  best 
Brahmos  in  the  community.  Strangely  enough,  another 
rupture  followed  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Sen  himself.  Mr. 
Mozumdar,  who  visited  America  some  years  ago,  and  who  is 
still  remembered  favorably  by  many  in  the  United  States, 
had  just  returned  from  a  trip  around  the  world;  and,  as  the 
most  prominent  of  Mr.  Sen's  followers,  he  expected  to  suc- 
ceed to  the  leadership.  In  this  he  was  opposed,  and  when 
he  attempted  to  occupy  the  pulpit  which  Mr.  Sen  had  for 
some  years  held,  he  was  ejected  from  it ;  and  having  follow- 
ers of  his  own,  the  consequence  which  might  have  been  ex- 
pected quickly  followed.  The  Somaj  again  divided. 

Since  the  death  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  the  Brahmo 
movement  has  been  in  a  quiescent  state.  Its  chief  strength  is 
now  in  the  hands  of  what  is  called  the  Sadharan  Somaj  ;  that 
is,  the  conservative  body  which  withdrew  from  Mr.  Sen  at 
the  time  he  fell  into  the  error  noted  above,  assuming  that  he 
was  guided  directly  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  original 
body  has  dwindled  down  almost  to  nothing.  The  future  of 
the  movement  is  very  uncertain.  If  another  leader  arises, 
with  sufficient  ability  and  skill  to  manage  the  somewhat  dis- 
cordant elements  of  which  the  body  is  composed,  Brahmoism 


t 
NE  W  RELIGIO  US  MO  VEMENTS.  147 

may  get  a  new  lease  of  life,  and  possibly  attain  to  the  dimen- 
sions of  a  great  movement.  Numerically  it  is  by  no  means 
a  strong  body.  It  has  not  nearly  so  many  adherents  now  as 
it  had  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago.  The  many  sharp  col- 
lisions which  have  occurred  among  its  members  has  had  the 
effect  of  alienating  many  young  men  who,  without  identify- 
ing themselves  directly  with  the  Somaj,  had  accepted  its  doc- 
trines, and  even  avowed  themselves  as  its  followers.  For 
several  years  past  comparatively  few  accessions  have  been 
made  to  its  ranks. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  speak  accurately  of  Mr.  Sen.  I 
knew  him  well,  and  might  almost  say  intimately,  and  yet 
have  always  regarded  his  career  as  an  enigma  difficult  to 
solve.  That  he  was  sincere  I  never  doubted,  but  at  the  same 
time  I  always  felt  painfully  that  he  had  mistaken  his  mission, 
and  was  led  constantly  by  false  lights  which  he  mistook  for 
the  clear  illumination  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  He  unhesitat- 
ingly believed  that  God,  from  time  to  time,  in  all  the  past, 
had  raised  up  special  leaders  to  reform  the  nations,  and  that 
these  leaders  had  been  the  subjects  of  peculiar  and  excep- 
tional inspiration.  He  drew  but  slight  distinctions  in  the 
character  of  these  men,  or  of  the  inspiration  which  they  en- 
joyed, putting  Confucius  and  Socrates,  Zoroaster  and  Buddha, 
Christ  and  Mohammed,  Choitonya  and  himself,  together  in 
one  category  as  men  called  of  God  and  inspired  for  a  great 
purpose.  In  his  later  years  he  would  have  hesitated  to  as- 
sign to  our  Saviour  a  common  place  among  these  inspired 
men.  His  own  language,  indeed,  concerning  Christ  was  so 
very  equivocal  that  it  is  impossible  to  decide  in  what  light 
lie  held  him.  One  thing  which  alienated  him  from  the  con- 
fidence of  Christian  missionaries,  and  which,  indeed,  irritated 
some  of  them  exceedingly  at  times,  was  his  constant  habit  of 
using  Christian  words  and  phrases  in  a  sense  peculiar  to  him- 
self; that  is,  he  used  these  terms  and  phrases  with  a  reserved 
right  to  apply  any  meaning  to  them  which  he  chose.  The  same 
criticism  applies,  to  some  extent,  to  all  the  Brahmos.  They 


148  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

borrow  Christian  phrases  as  well  as  Christian  usages  very 
freely,  and  in  the  employment  of  them  constantly  mislead 
Western  readers.  Mr.  Sen,  however,  was  undoubtedly  honest 
in  his  belief,  and  claimed  the  right  of  using  words  in  what- 
ever sense  suited  his  purpose.  He  believed  beyond  a  doubt 
that  he  had  been  raised  up  as  a  man  chosen  of  God  to  give 
the  people  of  India  a  new  and  purer  faith  than  they  had 
ever  known.  During  the  last  year  of  his  life  his  implicit 
faith  in  his  own  inspiration  led  him  to  adopt  some  extreme 
vagaries,  and  both  in  his  writings  and  public  teachings  he 
often  reminded  me  of  some  phases  of  religious  fanaticism 
which  appear  from  time  to  time  in  Christian  circles.  Had 
he  died  a  year  or  two  earlier,  it  would  probably  have  been 
better  for  his  fame. 

The  Arya  Somaj  of  North  India  is  a  body  corresponding 
in  some  respects  to  the  Brahmo  Somaj  of  Bengal.  The  latter, 
after  its  more  perfect  organization  by  Keshub  Chunder  Sen, 
sent  out  missionaries  and  established  branches  in  all  parts  of 
North  India;  but  these  subordinate  bodies  were  nearly  all 
confined  to  the  small  colonies  of  Bengalis  found  in  the  lead- 
ing cities.  The  movement  seldom  gained  any  foothold  among 
the  North  India  people ;  and  hence  a  clear  way  was  left  for 
a  distinct  movement,  for  which,  indeed,  the  soil  was  somewhat 
well  prepared.  The  movement  known  as  the  Arya  Somaj  is 
the  outcome  of  the  teachings  and  organizing  ability  of 
Dyanand  Saraswati,  the  son  of  a  Gujarati  Brahman,  born  in 
Dwarha,  a  sacred  city  of  Gujarat,  in  the  year  1825.  He  was 
thus  thirteen  years  older  than  Keshub  Chender  Sen,  but  did 
not  enjoy  the  advantages  which  the.  latter  received.  Being  a 
youth  of  a  strongly  marked  religious  temperament,  he  de- 
voted himself  at  an  early  age  to  the  study  of  the  Vedas;  but 
his  earnest  and  inquiring  mind  soon  led  him  to  doubt  many 
things  which  a  follower  of  the  popular  religion  was  expected 
to  accept  without  question.  When  sixteen  years  of  age  he 
was  deeply  impressed  by  the  death  of  an  uncle  and  an  only 


NE W  RELIGIO  US  MO  VEMENTS.  1 49 

sister;  and  as  often  happens  among  the  people  of  India,  when 
dissatisfied  or  disappointed  with  the  world  as  it  presents  itself 
to  persons  with  strong  religious  desires,  he  determined  to 
adopt  the  life  of  a  devotee.  When  hindered  by  his  father,  he 
quickly  resolved  to  escape  from  home,  which  he  did  in  the 
year  1847.  He  was  at  that  time  twenty-two  years  of  age,  and 
for  more  than  a  dozen  years  he  wandered  from  place  to  place 
in  the  society  of  devotees,  changing  once  or  twice  his  outward 
garb  as  he  advanced  from  one  stage  to  another.  By  the  year 
1854  he  had  become  a  Saniyasi,  the  fourth  degree  of  the  dev- 
oteeship  which  he  had  chosen.  This  was  a  high  proficiency  for 
one  so  young  as  he  was  at  that  time.  In  the  process  of  time, 
however,  he  found  that  he  was  making  little  headway  in  fol- 
lowing such  a  life;  and  when  about  thirty-five  years  of  age 
he  became  profoundly  impressed  that  he  had  a  mission  to  his 
own  people,  and  resolved  to  devote  himself  to  the  task  of  re- 
storing them  to  the  state  of  former  happiness  which  he  be- 
lieved they  had  enjoyed.  All  the  great  religions  of  the  world, 
except  the  Christian,  point  to  the  past  as  their  golden  age.  A 
few  Christians,  unfortunately,  have  fallen  into  the  same  mis- 
take; but  it  is  the  glory  of  the  Christian  system  that  its 
golden  age  is  in  the  future.  It  has  undertaken  to  lead  the 
world  to  a  better  destiny  than  it  has  ever  known.  The  ardent 
and  hopeful  Dyanand  thought  he  might  bring  back  again 
the  golden  age  of  his  people,  and  resorted  to  various  expe- 
dients with  that  end  in  view,  without,  however,  achieving 
any  marked  success.  At  last,  about  the  year  1875,  he  re- 
solved to  follow  the  precedent  set  him  by  the  Bengali  Brah- 
mos,  and  establish  Somajes,  or  religious  societies,  throughout 
North  India,  each  of  which  was  to  be  the  center  of  an  earnest 
work  of  religious  reform.  As  soon  as  he  began  to  carry  out 
this  plan,  his  work  assumed  a  definite  shape,  and  his  influence 
became  felt  far  and  wide  through  Western  and  Northern 
India. 

The  name,  Arya  Somaj,  was  given  to  this  new  organiza- 
tion, and  has  been  significant  of  the  character  and  progress  of 


150  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

the  whole  movement.  The  followers  of  Dyanand  differ 
from  their  brethren  of  Bengal  in  several  respects,  not  alto- 
gether to  their  own  advantage.  They  are  less  liberal,  and 
have  made  less  progress  in  the  direction  of  reform  than  the 
Brahmos  have  done.  They  are  more  partisan  in  their  feel- 
ing, and  adhere  more  closely  to  the  ancient  Vedic  system. 
In  other  words,  they  have  only  advanced  to  about  the  point 
which  the  Brahmos  had  reached  twenty-five  years  ago.  They 
are  more  hostile,  also,  to  Christianity,  and  especially  to  Chris- 
tian missionary  effort  in  India.  Owing  to  this,  most  of  the 
missionaries  in  North  India  regard  them  as,  upon  the  whole, 
hostile  rather  than  friendly,  and  decline  to  co-operate  with 
them  in  even  those  ordinary  reform  movements  in  which  all 
should  join.  Many  of  them  undoubtedly  have  good  reason 
for  so  regarding  them;  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the 
Aryas,  as  they  are  popularly  called,  or  the  Dyanandis,  do 
manifest  a  spirit  of  hostility,  not  only  to  Christian  mission- 
aries, but  to  Christian  truth,  which  is  far  from  creditable  to 
any  men.  who  wish  to  bear  the  name  of  reformers.  At  the 
same  time,  they  are  everywhere  recognized  as  the  opponents 
of  popular  idolatry,  and  many  of  them  are  warmly  enlisted  in 
favor  of  the  abolition  of  child-marriage,  enforced  widowhood, 
and  other  deeply  rooted  abuses.  As  has  happened  among  the 
Brahmos,  so  we  may  anticipate  that,  in  the  course  of  time,  dis- 
sensions and  divisions  will  occur  among  the  Aryas  also. 
Some  will  advance,  while  others  will  stand  still  or  recede; 
and  the  missionaries  will  be  wise  if,  instead  of  wasting  time 
in  fighting  them,  they  co-operate  with  them  as  often  as  oppor- 
tunity is  afforded  them,  and  conciliate  them  wherever  such  a 
policy  is  possible.  Some,  however,  are  too  bitter  in  their 
feelings,  and  too  hostile  to  the  Christian  faith,  to  be  of  much 
use  to  any  Christian  missionaries  in  connection  with  reform 
movements. 

It  would  hardly  interest  the  reader  to  give  an  outline  of 
the  leading  religious  tenets  held  by  the  members  of  the  Arya 
Somaj.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  still  hold  many  of  the 


NE  W  RELIGIO  US  MO  VEMENTS.  151 

popular  errors  of  the  Hindu  system,  while,  however,  formally 
denouncing  the  later  sacred  writings  of  the  Hindus.  They 
are  trying  to  adhere  to  the  original  Vedas,  and  have  yet  to 
give  up  some  of  their  most  fatal  errors.  They  believe,  or  at 
least  many  of  them  do,  in  transmigration.  Like  the  Brah- 
mos  of  Bengal,  they  have  adopted  the  exceedingly  fatal  no- 
tion that  God  6an  not  forgive  sin.  Forgiveness  has  no 
place  in  their  creed.  They  believe  that  sin  entails  suffering, 
and  that,  either  in  this  life  or  the  next,  it  must  be  atoned  for 
by  the  actual  suffering  of  the  transgressor.  They  also  ad- 
here to  the  ancient  Hindu  notion  of  merit,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, their  prayers  are  for  the  most  part  merely  formal. 
In  this  respect  they  are  far  behind  the  Brahmos,  being  much 
less  devotional,  and  using  much  less  direct  prayer  in  their 
worship.  Like  the  Brahmos,  they  borrow  freely  and  largely 
from  the  Christians  in  their  public  services.  Their  meetings 
are  for  the  most  part  held  on  Sunday ;  not  because  they 
have  any  peculiar  reverence  for  the  day,  but  because  it 
chances  to  be  a  Government  holiday,  and  they  have  more 
leisure  for  worship  than  on  any  other  day  of  the  week.  The 
ordinary  service  consists  of  prayer,  usually,  however,  read, 
chanting  of  a  hymn,  sometimes  in  Sanskrit  and  sometimes  in 
a  modern  tongue,  and  one  or  more  public  addresses.  The 
Arya  Somaj  has  a  much  larger  following  than  the  Brahmo 
Somaj.  This  is  probably  owing  to  their  greater  laxity  both 
of  faith  and  practice.  If  they  continue  to  make  progress,  in 
time,  no  doubt,  a  secession  of  the  more  earnest  and  progress- 
ive members  will  occur,  in  which  case  there  may  be  a  thin- 
ning of  the  ranks,  as  has  happened  among  the  Brahmos  in 
Calcutta.  I  am  not  able  to  state  what  the  present  strength 
of  the  body  is,  but  well-informed  persons  in  North  India  es- 
timate it  at  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  thousand. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  Hindu  Tract  Society  of  Madras. 
This  is  a  body  of  a  very  different  kind,  whose  animating 
spirit  seems  to  -be  simply  hostility  to  Christianity,  and 


152  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

especially  to  Christian  missionaries.  The  Hindus  of  South 
India  have  become  alarmed  of  late  by  the  rapid  progress 
which  missionaries  are  making  in  winning  over  the  lower 
castes  of  the  community.  Through  all  the  ages  past  Hin- 
duism has  never  lifted  a  finger  to  aid  the  despised  out- 
castes;  but  now  that  Christianity  is  coming  to  the  front  and 
befriending  them,  not  a  few  intelligent  Hindus  perceive  that, 
before  very  long,  not  only  will  these  despised  people  become 
Christians,  but  they  will  be  rapidly  elevated  in  the  social 
scale,  and  work  a  veritable  revolution  in  the  social  condition 
of  the  whole  community.  These  men  are  far-seeing,  but  not 
wise.  In  order  to  counteract  the  efforts  of  the  missionaries, 
a  society  has  been  organized,  called  the  Hindu  Tract  So- 
ciety, and  some  of  its  operations  are  really  ludicrous  when 
it  is  considered  that  what  they  wish  to  do  is  not  to  elevate 
the  poor,  but  to  keep  the  Christians  from  doing  it.  In  the 
neighborhood  of  Bangalore,  where  our  missionaries  had  gath- 
ered large  numbers  of  the  children  of  the  poor  in  Sunday- 
schools,  this  society  put  its  agents  to  work  in  opposition, 
and  actually  paid  small  bribes  to  the  children  to  keep  them 
away  from  Sunday-school.  They  have  also  made  a  few  feeble 
efforts  to  found  schools  for  the  Pariahs,  as  the  out-castes  are 
popularly  called,  and  in  their  papers  and  public  meetings  have 
discussed  the  most  practical  ways  and  means  of  counteracting 
missionary  influences.  They  have  also  published  and  circu- 
lated tracts  in  opposition  to  Christianity,  and  from  this  feature 
of  their  work  the  society  takes  its  name.  The  whole  move- 
ment, however,  is  hardly  worthy  of  serious  notice,  and  I  only 
mention  it  as  an  illustration  of  the  influence  which  Christian 
missions  are  exerting  upon  the  people. 

A  few  other  movements,  somewhat  akin  to  the  two 
Somajes  mentioned  above,  have  taken  place  in  different  parts 
of  India,  but  not  on  a  wide  enough  scale,  or  with  sufficient 
success,  to  call  for  further  notice. 


Chapter  XL 
EARLY  CHRISTIANITY  IN  INDIA. 

INDIA  is  so  well  known  as  the  greatest  mission-field  of 
1  the  modern  Church,  that  it  will  be  a  surprise  to  many 
readers  in  America  who  have  not  given  special  attention  to 
the  subject,  to  learn  that  Christianity  has  had  a  foot-hold  in 
one  part  of  the  empire  since  a  very  early  period,  probably  as 
early  as  the  beginning  of  the  second  century.  It  is  probable, 
although  not  certain,  that  Christian  merchants  and  other 
adventurers,  if  not  also  Christian  missionaries,  penetrated 
through  Central  Asia  as  far  as  the  Indian  passes  during  the 
first  and  second  centuries;  but  no  authentic  records  remain 
to  show  to  what  extent  churches  were  organized  in  India 
proper.  It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  any  considerable 
Christian  population  was  ever  recognized  in  North  India.  In 
South  India,  on  the  other  hand,  probably  through  the  efforts 
of  Christian  merchants  and  other  travelers  following  a  well- 
known  route  of  commerce  down  the  Red  Sea  and  around  the 
Persian  Gulf,  Christianity  gained  a  permanent  foot-hold,  which 
it  has  retained  ever  since.  An  endless  number  of  mythical 
stories  have  been  put  in  circulation  in  more  recent  times  with 
regard  to  the  planting  of  these  ancient  churches  in  Southern 
India ;  but  very  little  is  known  on  the  subject  with  historical 
certainty.  When  the  Portuguese  made  their  first  settlements  on 
the  Malabar  Coast,  and  found  a  large  Christian  population  oc- 
cupying a  portion  of  the  main-land,  it  became  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  them  to  prove  that  all  the  Christian  churches 
of  India  had  been  founded  by  the  Apostle  Thomas,  and  hence 
originally  belonged  to  their  own  communion.  It  is  true  that 
they  found  the  name  of  Thomas  held  in  the  highest  venera- 

153 


154  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

tion  among  all  the  Indian  Christians,  and  the  opinion  every- 
where accepted  that  the  Thomas  who  had  become  famous 
among  them  was  none  other  than  Thomas  Didymtis,  of  the 
original  twelve  apostles.  It  seems  a  well  established  fact  that 
two  distinguished  leaders  were  known  among  these  Chris- 
tians, one  in  the  third  century  and  one  in  the  eighth,  both 
bearing  the  name  of  Thomas.  Both  these  men  performed 
distinguished  services  for  their  fellow-disciples,  and  it  would 
be  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  their  grateful  fol- 
lowers— especially  after  the  lapse  of  a  generation  or  two — to 
confound  them  with  the  older  traditions  of  the  Apostle 
Thomas  himself.  It  has  also  been  suggested  that  the  Apostle 
Thomas  who  figures  in  the  universal  tradition  of  the  prim- 
itive Church  as  a  most  enterprising  and  laborious  missionary 
evangelist,  pushed  his  way  into  the  far  East,  preaching  iu- 
the  countries  lying  east  of  Persia,  which  at  one  time  formed 
the  ancient  Bactrian  kingdom  of  the  Greeks.  The  name 
India  in  those  days  was  very  commonly  applied  to  all  that 
region,  neither  the  Persians,  Greeks,  nor  Romans  having  any 
clear  idea  of  the  geographical  boundaries  of  India,  or  being 
very  particular  in  their  use  of  geographical  terms.  In  this 
way  the  Apostle  Thomas  would  come  to  be  regarded  through- 
out Europe  as  an  apostle  to  the  people  of  India;  and  when 
the  name  of  Thomas  was  subsequently  discovered  in  South- 
ern India,  it  needs  afford  us  no  surprise  that  in  those  old 
times,  when  accuracy  of  date  was  little  thought  of,  Christian 
writers  generally  should  fall  into  the  mistake  of  confounding 
three  different  men  who  chanced  to  bear  the  same  name. 

The  first  authentic  mention  which  we  have  of  this  com- 
munity of  Indian  Christians  is  given  by  Eusebius  in  an  ac- 
count of  a  zealous  Christian  named  Pantaenus,  of  Alexan- 
dria, who  had  previously  been  well  known  as  the  head  of  a 
celebrated  school  of  Stoic  philosophy  in  that  city.  About 
the  year  A.  D.  190,  Pantaenus  heard  from  merchants  who 
had  returned  from  India  of  the  existence  of  a  Christian  com- 
munity in  that  distant  land.  In  those  days  a.  Roman  fleet 


EARLY  CHRISTIANITY.  155 

went  regularly  once  a  year  from  a  port  on  the  Red  Sea  to 
India,  and  it  is  well  known  that  Jews  going  out  from  time 
to  time  by  this  route  finally  effected  a  settlement  on  the 
western  coast  of  India,  and  descendants  of  these  Jews  are 
well  known  in  Bombay  to  the  present  day  as  Bani  Israel. 
It  is  extremely  probable  that  Christians  also  would  find  their 
way  to  India  in  the  same  way  as  the  Jews  did,  and  probably 
they,  too,  founded  a  colony,  or  perhaps  preached  the  gospel  to 
the  natives  of  the  country,  and  organized  them  into  Churches. 
It  is  evident  that  the  Romans  carried  on  a  very  extensive 
trade  at  that  period  with  India.  About  fifty  years  ago  a  col- 
lection of  silver  coins  was  discovered  at  Coimbatore,  in 
South  India,  522  in  number,  of  which  no  less  than  135  were 
coins  of  Augustus,  and  378  of  Tiberius.  A  few  years  later 
another  discovery  was  made,  near  Calicut,  of  several  hun- 
dred coins  dating  from  Augustus  to  Nero,  but  none  later 
than  Nero  have  been  discovered.  The  presence  of  so  many 
of  these  coins  clearly  indicates  that  a  very  active  and  extensive 
trade  must  have  been  carried  on  between  the  people  of  the  Mal- 
abar coast,  and  Roman  merchants  from  some  point  westward. 
Pantsenus  set  out  from  Alexandria  with  a  resolute  pur- 
pose to  visit  his  Christian  brethren  in  India — an  enterprise, 
in  that  age,  of  no  little  difficulty ;  and  although  his  reports 
have  been  doubted  to  some  extent,  it  seems  reasonably  cer- 
tain that  he  succeeded  in  reaching  India.  So  far,  however, 
from  finding  any  evidence  that  the  Apostle  Thomas  had  been 
there  before  him,  he  was  surprised  to  discover  that  some  of 
the  Christians  were  acquainted  with  the  Gospel  of  Matthew, 
and  reported  that  Bartholomew,  one  of  the  apostles,  after 
preaching  to  them,  had  left  them  this  Gospel  in  the  Hebrew 
language.  It  is  worthy  of  -note  that  Hippolytus,  Bishop  of 
Portus,  early  in  the  third  century,  also  assigns  the  conversion 
of  India  to  the  Apostle  Bartholomew,  while  to  Thomas  he 
gives  the  credit  of  evangelizing  Persia  and  the  Bactrian  re- 
gions of  Central  Asia.  He  also  adds  that  Thomas  suffered 
martyrdom  in  India,  at  a  place  called  Calamina. 


156  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

It  is  abundantly  evident  that  the  early  Christians  were 
men  of  very  great  activity  in  their  efforts  to  spread  the  gos- 
pel over  the  world.  While  the  New  Testament  is  wholly 
silent  concerning  the  later  labors  of  most  of  the  apostles,  it 
is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  those  unnamed  in  the  Book  of 
Acts  were  quite  as  zealous  in  propagating  the  faith  as  Peter 
or  John,  or  even  Paul;  and  it  is  quite  credible  that  both 
Bartholomew  and  Thomas  actually  preached  the  gospel  in 
India.  It  is  quite  as  probable,  however,  that  other  Chris- 
tians, living  a  generation  or  two  later,  and  bearing  the  same 
names,  were  confounded  with  the  original  apostles.  In  any 
case,  incidental  evidences  like  those  mentioned  above  are  of 
extreme  interest  to  students  of  primitive  Christian  history. 
It  would  seem  that  not  only  were  there  zealous  and  able 
Christian  leaders  during  the  first  and  second  centuries,  who 
pushed  the  work  of  evangelization  far  and  wide,  but  that  the 
rank  and  file  of  believers  went  forward,  preaching  the  word, 
and  thus  set  an  example  to  the  Church  of  modern  times 
which  has,  up  to  the  present  date,  not  been  fully  imitated. 

When  the  Portuguese  Catholics  gained  a  foot-hold  in 
Southwestern  India,  they  at  once  entered  vigorously  upon 
the  task  of  bringing  the  Christians  whom  they  found  there 
under  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  and  consequently  became 
zealous  advocates  of  the  tradition  that  the  original  founder 
of  the  Indian  Church  was  none  other  than  the  Apostle 
Thomas,  An  expedition  was  accordingly  sent  to  Madras, 
where  tradition  said  the  apostle  had  been  put  to  death  as  a 
martyr,  together  with  a  local  prince  who  had  been  converted 
through  his  efforts.  Those  in  charge  of  the  expedition, 
trusting  to  the  easy  credulity  of  those  times,  brought  back 
with  them  two  skeletons,  which  they  affirmed  were  those  of 
the  apostle  and  the  prince,  and  these  were  deposited  with  all 
due  solemnity  in  the  cathedral  at  Goa,  where  they  still  re- 
main. In  fact,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  now  so  fully 
committed  to  the  tradition  of  the  Apostle  Thomas,  that  it  is 
difficult  for  its  historians  to  treat  the  subject  candidly. 


EARLY  CHRISTIANITY.  157 

It  seems  quite  certain,  however,  that  these  ancient  Chris- 
tians were  Nestorians.  in  common  with  nearly  all  the  other 
Asiatic  Christians  of  the  nine  or  ten  centuries  succeeding  the 
age  of  Nestorius  himself.  They  have  been  universally  known 
as  Syrian  Christians,  and,  century  after  century,  received  their 
bishops  from  the  Nestorian  Churches  of  Autioch.  Their  con- 
dition varied  from  time  to  time,  according  as  they  chanced 
to  encounter  the  friendship  or  enmity  of  surrounding 
princes.  Sometimes  they  were  reduced  to  great  straits,  and 
driven  into  the  mountains,  where,  it  seemed,  they  must  soon 
either  lapse  into  the  polytheism  of  surrounding  tribes,  or  in 
some  other  way  abandon  their  ancient  faith.  It  was  at  such 
a  time  of  great  depression  that  the  Armenian  Thomas  found 
them  near  the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  and  through  his 
efforts  they  were  relieved  of  their  disabilities,  and  not  only 
restored  to  their  former  privileges,  but  placed  in  a  position 
of  great  favor  under  the  rule  of  several  powerful  princes. 
When  the  Portuguese  found  them,  they  were  existing  as  a 
separate  oaste,  a  position  which  every  separate  community  in 
India  quickly  assumes  ;  and  hence  we  may  conclude  that  they 
had,  to  a  serious  extent,  lapsed  from  the  higher  plane  of 
Christian  life  which  the  early  Christians  throughout  the 
Roman  Empire  so  resolutely  adopted  and  maintained.  In 
India  the  extraordinary  influence  of  the  caste  system  tends 
powerfully  to  drive  every  new  sect,  or  organized  body  of  any 
kind,  into  the  position  of  a  mere  caste  or  social  guild,  with 
the  inevitable  result  of  preventing  the  growth  of  the  com- 
munity except  by  the  natural  increase  of  population.  This 
Christian  caste  had  gained  a  position  of  unquestioned  re- 
spectability, and  strangely  enough  was  known  as  a  military 
caste.  Its  soldiers  occupied  the  position  of  honor  in  the 
armies  of  the  reigning  princes,  and  were  known  as  skillful 
soldiers  and  brave  men.  The  community  was  in  a  prosper- 
ous condition,  and  seemed  to  have  gained  a  vantage-ground 
which  it  would  not  again  lose. 

It  is  abundantly  evident,  however,  that,  as  a  Christian 


158  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

community,  India  had  little  to  hope  from  these  people.  Their 
religious  services  were  conducted  in  the  Syrian  tongue,  and, 
while  they  rejected  many  of  the  errors  of  Rome,  they  do  not 
seem  to  have  possessed  any  spiritual  vitality,  or  to  have 
taken  any  pains  to  give  a  knowledge  of  the  word  of  God  to 
their  own  people,  much  less  to  extend  it  among  the  Buddhists 
and  Hindus  of  India.  They  occupied  a  remote  corner  of  the 
empire,  and  their  influence  was  but  little  felt  beyond  their 
own  immediate  neighborhood.  They  were  very  imperfect 
exemplars  of  the  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
were  utterly  unfitted  for  any  work  as  evangelizing  agents  in 
extending  a  knowledge  of  vital  Christianity  among  the  peo- 
ple of  India. 

When  the  Portuguese  discovered  these  people,  they  at  once 
attempted  to  induce  them  to  recognize  the  Pope,  and  place 
themselves  in  line  with  what  they  regarded  as  the  Catholic 
Church.  The  Syrian  Christians,  however,  at  once  per- 
emptorily refused  to  take  any  step  of  the  kind,  and,  in  con- 
sequence, were  annoyed  and  persecuted  with  as  much  rigor 
as  the  unfortunate  Hindus  who  lived  under  Portuguese 
authority.  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  co-operated  with 
the  vigorous  arm  of  the  secular  power  in  incessant  efforts  to 
induce  them  to  accept  the  authority  of  the  Pope — or,  as  it 
would  be  euphemistically  expressed  in  modern  phrase,  to  be 
"  reconciled  to  the  Church  " — until  at  length,  in  the  year  1599, 
a  synod,  called  the  Synod  of  Diamper,  was  held  held  under  the 
presidency  of  the  Archbishop  of  Goa,  and  the  liturgy  of  the 
Syrian  Church  was  purged  of  what  was  called  its  Nestorian 
heresies,  and  in  this  amended  form  the  Syrian  Christians 
were  permitted  to  continue  its  use.  For  about  half  a  cen- 
tury the  Syrian  Christians  continued  to  yield  an  unwilling 
submission  to  their  Catholic  rulers;  but  in  1653  they  for  a 
time  revolted  and  rejected  the  authority  of  their  Jesuit 
bishop.  They  were  brought  back  again,  however,  by  what  were 
called  "vigorous  measures,"  in  1666;  but  very  soon  after 
the  Dutch,  then  at  war  with  the  Portuguese  in  India,  changed 


EARLY  CHRISTIANITY.  159 

the  face  of  affairs  by  the  capture  of  Cochin,  and  the  practical 
overthrow  of  the  Portuguese  power  in  India.  Large  numbers 
of  the  Syrian  Christians  at  once  reaffirmed  their  spiritual  inde- 
pendence; but  as  nearly  two  generations  had  now  grown  up 
under  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits,  the  majority  of  the  people 
continued  to  adhere  to  the  Roman  Catholic  communion.  The 
Dutch  took  no  part  in  the  conflict  between  the  two  parties, 
save  to  see  that  fair  play  was  accorded  to  both.  The  inter- 
ference by  the  temporal  power  with  the  Church  from  this 
time  ceased.  Both  parties  maintain  their  position  to  the 
present  day. 

The  singular  device  which  the  Portuguese  had  adopted  to 
compel  the  Syrian  Christians  to  place  themselves  under  their 
jurisdiction,  was  that  of  prohibiting  the  import  of  bishops 
from  Antioch.  The  Syrian  Christians  in  India  had,  from  the 
first,  been  accustomed  to  have  their  bishops  sent  out  to  them 
from  Persia  or  Syria — an  arrangement  which,  in  the  end,  proved 
a  source  of  great  weakness,  as  the  sequel  will  show.  The 
Portuguese  had  absolute  control  of  the  sea,  and  shrewdly  con- 
cluded that  the  best  way  to  destroy  the  independence  of  the 
Indian  Church  would  be  to  deprive  them  of  their  bishops, 
and  accordingly  they  issued  orders  that  no  ecclesiastic  com- 
ing out  from  the  Nestoriau  Church  should  be  permitted  to 
land  in  India.  The  poor  Syrian  Christians  were  now  re- 
duced to  great  straits,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  questions 
affecting  the  validity  of  ordinations  and  other  like  matters 
soon  began  to  trouble  them.  When,  however,  the  Dutch  re- 
stored religious  liberty  to  them,  they  lost  no  time  in  sending 
for  a  bishop;  but,  unfortunately,  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch 
sent  them  a  Jacobite  bishop,  instead  of  a  Nestorian  of  the  old 
school,  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed.  The  bishop  was 
not  rejected  on  his  arrival,  but  he  would  have  received  a- 
more  cordial  welcome  from  the  community  at  large  had  he 
not  belonged  to  the  sect  known  as  Jacobites.  As  it  was, 
about  one-third  of  the  community  adhered  to  him,  the  re- 
mainder retaining  their  allegiance  to  the  Church  of  Rome, 


160  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

qualified,  however,  by  the  concessions  which  had  been  made  to 
them.  The  division  between  the  two  parties  has  been  rigidly 
maintained  ever  since  the  arrival  of  this  Jacobite  bishop. 
A  good  deal  of  vigor  is  manifested  by  both  parties;  but  their 
relative  strength  has  not  materially  changed.  Efforts  have 
been  made  by  Protestant  missionaries  to  revive  the  Jacobite 
party,  by  introducing  among  them  a  more  evangelical  type  of 
Christianity;  but  thus  far  the  success  achieved  has  not  been 
very  marked.  It  is  a  difficult  task  at  best  to  inspire  a  Church 
half  dead,  especially  one  that  has  learned  to  trust  in  the  tradi- 
tions of  ages,  with  new  spiritual  life,  and  the  Syrian  Church 
of  South  India  has  thus  far  formed  no  exception  to  the  gen- 
eral rule. 


Chapter   XII. 

ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MISSIONS  IN  INDIA. 

THE  introduction  and  progress  of  the  first  Roman  Catholic 
missions  in  India  are  so  closely  identified  with  the  ad- 
vent of  the  Portuguese,  that  the  same  date  may  be  fixed  for 
the  planting  of  the  political  power  of  the  Portuguese,  and 
the  ecclesiastical  rule  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  In- 
dia. The  passage  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  first 
discovered  in  1498,  and  the  year  1500  has  been  fixed  upon 
as  the  date  of  the  founding  of  Roman  Catholic  missions  in 
India.  The  kings  of  Portugal  in  that  era  avowed  in  the 
most  open  manner  their  purpose  not  only  to  subdue  king- 
doms, and  extend  their  political  power  in  all  quarters  of  the 
globe,  but  also  to  subdue  all  forms  of  religious  error,  and  plant 
the  flag  of  the  Papacy,  if  not  the  banner  of  truth,  wherever 
the  standard  of  Portugal  should  wave.  The  first  missionaries 
who  arrived  from  Portugal  belonged  to  the  Franciscan  order. 
They  were  zealous  men,  and  probably  more  worthy  than 
history  has  given  them  credit  for;  but  they  were  so  identi- 
fied with  the  brutal  policy  adopted  by  the  Portuguese  to- 
ward the  natives  of  the  country,  that  it  was  impossible  for 
them  to  exert  much  good  influence  in  any  direction,  and  they 
encountered  what  must  be  admitted  to  have  been  a  very  nat- 
ural hostility,  and  no  little  danger,  whenever  they  ventured 
beyond  the  protection  of  the  Portuguese  authorities.  For 
some  time  their  missionary  work  was  confined  almost  ex- 
clusively to  the  Portuguese  settlements.  In  1514  the  Do- 
minicans appeared  on  the  ground,  and  the  first  bishop  of  India 
belonged  to  that  order.  A  Franciscan  was  the  first  bishop  of 
Goa,  the  capital  of  Portuguese  India. 

11  161 


162  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  great  progress  was  made  in  the 
work  of  nominal  conversion  within  the  bounds  of  the  Por- 
tuguese settlements,  but  not  much  had  been  effected  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  Portuguese  power  before  the  arrival  of 
Francis  Xavier,  the  first  of  the  Jesuits,  in  the  year  1542.  A 
sketch  of  his  life  and  labors  will  be  found  in  another  chapter. 
Seven  year  later  a  number  of  martyrdoms  were  reported  in 
Tinnevelli  and  other  parts  of  South  India,  and  marvelous 
details  of  signs  and  wonders  accomplished  in  connection  with 
the  work,  are  found  in  letters  written  by  some  of  the  fathers 
of  that  period  to  friends  in  Europe.  The  conversions,  how- 
ever, were  mostly  on  the  wholesale  order,  and  superficial  in 
the  extreme.  Large  numbers  of  the  converts  were  infants, 
who  were  baptized  either  by  stealth  or  on  the  near  approach 
of  death,  while  adults  were  not  required  to  change  either  their 
moral  code,  or  many  of  their  outward  observances,  so  that  it 
is  impossible  to  judge  accurately  of  the  value  of  the  work 
reported. 

The  Jesuits  began  to  plant  missions  on  the  eastern  coast 
of  South  India  in  the  year  1606.  They  occupied  stations  in 
the  districts  of  Madura,  Trichinopoli,  Tanjore,  Tinnevelli, 
Salem,  and  adjacent  regions.  Among  the  most  distinguished 
names  of  the  Jesuits  working  in  those  missions  are  those  of 
Robert  de  Nobili,  the  founder  of  the  work  ;  John  de  Britto, 
a  martyr;  Arnauld,  Calmette,  and  Beschi,  an  illustrious 
scholar  who  achieved  distinction  as  a  linguist.  These  mis- 
sionaries have  left  a  better  reputation  behind  them  than  their 
Portuguese  brethren  on  the  western  coast;  but  their  success 
in  purely  missionary  work  wras  not  so  great  as  has  been 
usually  affirmed.  They  deserve  credit,  however,  for  a  liter- 
ary activity  which  was  unusual  in  the  history  of  Jesuit  mis- 
sions in  that  age.  They  also  fostered  the  cause  of  education 
to  an- extent  which  was  unusual  among  Roman  Catholic  mis- 
sionaries, and  printed  books  of  more  or  less  value  in  various 
languages. 

It  was  by  a  few  of  these  missionaries  that  the  celebrated 


ROMAN  CA  THOLIC  MISSIONS.  163 

attempt  was  made  of  thoroughly  mastering  the  language  and 
religious  cermoniale  of  the  Brahmans  at  a  distant  point,  and 
then  presenting  themselves  suddenly  among  the  people,  where 
no  word  of  their  previous  knowledge  of  Hinduism  could 
have  reached,  as  Brahmans  of  a  new  and  higher  rank  than 
any  others  known  in  the  country.  It  has  been  affirmed  a 
hundred  times  over  that  this  audacious  fraud  was  not  only 
courageously  attempted,  but  successfully  executed;  and,  in- 
deed, it  is  very  common  in  England  and  America  to  hear 
intelligent  persons  speak  of  this  experiment  as  the  fixed 
policy  of  Roman  Catholics  in  heathen  lands.  As  a  matter 
of  history,  such  an  attempt. was  actually  made;  but  it  ought 
to  be  stated,  in  the  interest  of  truth,  that  it  proved  a  failure, 
as  it  ought  to  have  done,  and  as  any  one  acquainted  with  the 
people  might  have  known  it  would  do.  This  attempted 
fraud,  perhaps  more  than  anything  else,  has  given  currency 
to  the  statement,  which  is  constantly  made  in  Protestant 
lands,  that  the  Roman  Catholics  excel  Protestant  missiona- 
ries, by  adapting  themselves  more  carefully  to  the  customs, 
habits,  and  even  prejudices,  of  the  people  among  whom  they 
labor.  Dr.  W.  W.  Hunter,  for  instance,  in  his  "  History  of 
Early  Jesuit  Missions  in  India,"  says:  "Their  priests  and 
monks  became  perfect  Indians  in  all  secular  matters,  dress, 
food,  etc.,  and  had  equal  success  among  all  castes,  high  and 
low."  This  statement  is  true  only  in  a  very  qualified  sense. 
Neither  in  those  ancient  times  nor  at  the  present  day,  do 
Roman  Catholic  missionaries  become  "  perfect  Indians,"  in 
'any  practical  sense.  That  the  attempt  was  made,  as  above 
stated,  is  true  enough,  but  the  great  mass  of  the  missionaries 
wore  their  own  distinctive  garb,  and  retained  their  own 
habits;  nor  can  it  be  said  that  they  "had  equal  success 
among  all  castes."  Their  success  depended  upon  the  vigor 
with  which  they  were  supported  by  the  secular  power;  and 
in  no  instance-  have  they  ever  succeeded  in  India  in  winning 
converts  of  all  castes  with  equal  facility,  unless  when  they 
have  conceded  everything  to  caste  prejudices  and  customs. 


164  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

It  is  but  just  to  the  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  of 
India  to  point  out  that  their  early  history  is  quite  .distinct 
from  their  more  recent  movements.  Taking  their  mission- 
ary history,  from  its  inception  in  1500,  down  to  the  overthrow 
of  the  Portuguese  power,  their  work  can  not  but  be  regarded 
as  a  gigantic  failure.  Dr.  Hunter  states  the  case  very 
forcibly,  as  well  as  accurately,  in  the  following  paragraph : 

"  The  Lusitanian  conquest  of  India  had  a  deeper  fascination,  and 
appeared  at  the  time  to  have  a  deeper  moral  significance  to  Christendom, 
than  afterward  attached  to  our  matter-of-fact  operations.  Their  prog- 
ress formed  a  brilliant  triumph  of  military  ardor  and  religious  zeal. 
They  resolved  not  only  to  conquer  India,  but  also  to  convert  her. 
Only  by  slow  degrees  were  they  compelled  in  secret  to  realize  that 
they  had  entered  upon  a  task,  the  magnitude  of  which  they  had  not 
acknowledged,  and  the  execution  of  which  proved  to  be  'altogether 
beyond  their  strength.  All  that  chivalry  and  enthusiastic  piety  could 
effect,  they  accomplished;  but  they  failed  to  fulfill  either  their  own 
hopes  or  the  expectations  Tvhich  they  had  raised  in  the  minds  of 
their  countrymen  at  home.  Their  Viceroys  had  to  show  to  Europe 
results  which  they  were  not  able  to  produce,  and  so  they  were  fain 
to  accept  the  shadow  for  the  substance,  and  in  their  oificial  dis- 
patches to  represent  appearances  as  realities.  In  their  military  nar- 
ratives every  petty  raja,  or  village  chief,  who  sent  them  a  few  pump- 
kins or  mangoes,  became  a  tributary  rex,  conquered  by  their  arms,  or 
constrained  to  submission  by  the  terror  of  their  name.  In  their 
ecclesiastical  epistles  the  whole  country  is  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey,  and  teeming  with  a  population  eager  for  sacramental 
rites." 

Portugal  retained  an  unchallenged  supremacy  in  the 
Eastern  seas  throughout  the  whole  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  little  known,  or  at  least  certainly 
little  appreciated  at  the  present  day,  that  the  insignificant 
kingdom  of  Portugal  should  have  been  the  great  maritime 
power  of  the  world  throughout  the  whole  of  that  century, 
as  Holland  was  during  the  succeeding  century.  The  Portu- 
guese also  held  an  entire  monopoly  of  the  European  trade 
with  India,  and  were  the  only  Europeans  personally  known 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MISSIONS.  165 

to  the  Indians  of  that  day.  Throughout  this  long  period  of 
political  supremacy  the  Catholic  missions  were  actively  aided 
by  the  secular  power  in  every  possible  way. 

The  Inquisition  was  introduced  into  Goa,  the  capital  of 
Portuguese  India,  in  1560,  and  for  more  than  two  hundred 
years  it  was  made  to  do  its  horrible  work  in  suppressing 
heresy,  and  probably  in  helping  forward  the  work  of  nomi- 
nal conversion  by  the  terror  which  it  inspired.  Very 
scanty  records  of  the  Inquisition  have  been  preserved,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  tell  to  what  extent  it  was  employed 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  this  long  period.  It  is 
known,  however,  that  the  building  at  Goa  had  two  hundred 
cells  for  the  prisoners  confined  within  its  walls.  Authentic 
records  have  been  preserved  of  seventy-one  autos-da-fe  be- 
tween the  years  1600  and  1773.  It  is  impossible  to  tell 
how  many  victims  suffered  on  these  occasions,  but  Dr. 
Hunter,  who  uses  mild  language  in  speaking  of  the  Inquisi- 
sition  at  Goa,  and  deprecates  what  he  calls  the  "  vividly 
colored  "  letters  of  Dr.  Claudius  Buchanan,  somewhat  naively 
remarks  that,  at  "  a  few  of  the  autos,  4,046  persons  were  sen- 
tenced to  various  modes  of  punishment,  of  whom  3,034  were 
males,  and  1,012  females.  These  punishments  included  105 
men  and  16  women  condemned  to  the  flames,  of  whom  57 
were  burned  alive,  and  64  in  effigy."  It  is  to  be  feared  that 
English  and  American  Christians,  in  our  tolerant  days,  when 
they  speak  in  terms  of  horror  of  the  cruelty  of  burning 
Hindu  widows  with  the  dead  bodies  of  their  husbands,  too 
willingly  forget  that  persons  bearing  the  Christian  name, 
and  professing  to  be,  in  a  sense,  Christian  missionaries,  had 
been  engaged  in  the  terrible  work  of  burning  deserving  per- 
sons at  the  stake,  long  years  before  Europe  had  heard  of  the 
terrible  sati  performed  by  Hindu  widows.  The  inquisition 
at  Goa  was  suspended  by  the  Portuguese  Government  in 
1774,  but  renewed  again  four  years  later.  It  was  finally 
abolished  in  1812,  and  in  1820  the  building  occupied  by  it 
was  pulled  down,  and  no  trace  of  it  now  remains. 


166  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

In  the  meantime  dark  days  had  come  to  the  Jesuits  in 
India.  Their  power,  meddlesome  and  inquisitorial  to  the 
last  degree,  had  become  intolerable,  and,  in  1759,  the  Portu- 
guese Government  not  only  suppressed  the  order  throughout 
all  its  territories,  but  confiscated  the  property  of  the  Jesuits. 
France  did  the  same  in  1764,  and  in  1773  Pope  Clement 
XIV  suppressed  the  society  altogether,  thus  affording  an- 
other of  the  many  instances  in  which  one  Pope  curses  what 
another  has  blessed,  or  blesses  what  another  has  cursed.  la 
the  meanwhile  the  Portuguese  had  been  overthrown  by  the 
Dutch,  who  appeared  upon  the  scene  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  and,  after  a  number  of  victories,  wrested  the  city  of 
Malacca  from  the  Portuguese,  thereby  giving  the  latter 
power  a  blow  from  which  it  never  recovered  in  the  East. 
All  the  Portuguese  settlements  on  the  Malabar  Coast — that 
is,  the  southwestern  coast  of  India,  where  the  Catholic  mis- 
sions had  become  most  firmly  rooted — were  captured  by  the 
Dutch  between  1661  and  1664.  Practically,  the  Portuguese 
supremacy  in  Southern  India  continued  for  about  a  century 
and  a  half,  since  which  time  they  have  held  only  a  few  un- 
important possessions,  such  as  Goa,  Daman,  and  Diu.  Dr. 
Hunter  says  of  their  career  since  their  overthrow  by  the 
Dutch :  "  The  further  history  of  the  Portuguese  in  India  is 
a  miserable  chronicle  of  pride,  poverty,  and  sounding  titles." 

Soon  after  the  suppression  of  the  Jesuits,  the  French 
Revolution  broke  upon  Europe  like  the  sudden  burst  of  a 
cyclone  upon  a  sluggish  Eastern  sea,  and  still  darker  days 
began  to  brood  over  the  Roman  Catholic  missions  of  India. 
Throughout  the  era  of  Napoleon  they  were  either  neglected 
altogether,  or  paralyzed  by  the  misfortunes  which  fell,  not  only 
upon  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Europe,  but  upon  the 
Pope  himself.  Native  princes  were  not  slow  to  take  advan- 
tage of  their  opportunity,  and  bloody  persecutions  broke  out 
in  several  places.  The  famous  Tipu  Sultan,  of  Mysore,  com- 
pelled twenty  thousand  Kanarese  Christians  to  submit  to  the 
rite  of  circumcision  at  the  peril  of  their  lives;  and  vast  mul- 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MISSIONS.  167 

titudes  of  weak  creatures,  who  had  only  accepted  Christianity 
nominally,  did  as  might  have  been  expected  under  such  cir- 
cumstances,— quietly  returned  to  the  faith  of  their  fathers. 
In  1814,  after  the  first  fall  of  Napoleon,  measures  were  taken 
to  re-establish  missionary  work  in  India ;  and  since  that  time 
the  Roman  Catholic  missions  have  been  conducted  with  a 
good  measure  of  energy,  and  in  some  places  with  success.  In 
more  recent  years  the  Jesuits  have  become  increasingly 
prominent;  and,  although  the  various  orders  are  all  at 
work  in  various  parts  of  the  empire,  it  seems  probable  that 
the  Jesuits  will  maintain  the  lead  which  they  have  secured. 
Up  to  the  present  day,  however,  the  main  strength  of  the 
Roman  Catholics  is  in  the  far  South.  In  Bengal,  twenty 
thousand  or  more  Roman  Catholic  Christians  live  in  a  dis- 
trict east  of  Calcutta,  and  also  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chit- 
tagong,  about  three  hundred  and  eighty  miles  east  of  the 
Hoogly.  These  people  have  a  singular  history.  They  have 
all  along  been  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Portuguese 
priests,  and  have  been  supervised  by  a  Vicar  Apostolic  sent 
from  Goa.  They  are  the  descendants,  however,  of  pirates,  who 
were  none  the  less  Roman  Catholics  in  the  days  when  their 
very  name  was  a  terror  all  along  the  coasts  of  Burma,  and 
around  the  mouths  of  the  Ganges.  Their  allegiance  to  the 
Church  is  held  very  lightly,  and  never  at  any  time  have  they 
differed  very  much  from  the  Hindus  among  whom  they  live, 
excepting  in  the  name  which  they  bear.  They  have,  of 
course,  given  up  their  piratical  habits  since  they  fell  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  English  Government,  and  the  great 
mass  of  them  are  not  aware  that  their  ancestors  were  ever 
addicted  to  such  a  life. 

I  may  mention,  as  an  evidence  of  the  slight  hold  which 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  upon  them,  that  a  large 
number  of  their  leading  men  waited  upon  me  some  years 
ago,  stating  that  they  represented  a  community  of  four  thou- 
sand persons,  all  of  whom  had  authorized  them  to  say  that 
they  would  unite  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  if  I 


168  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

would  receive  them.  Suspecting  some  ulterior  motive,  I 
made  diligent  inquiries,  and  became  satisfied  that  if  I  received 
them  they  would  expect  me  to  aid  them  in  an  important  suit 
which  was  soon  to  come  on  before  the  Calcutta  High  Court; 
and  not  being  able  to  discover  that  they  felt  any  interest 
whatever  in  spiritual  matters,  I  declined  their  overtures. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  North  India — that  is,  north  of  a 
line  drawn  east  and  west  through  the  city  of  Calcutta — the 
Roman  Catholics  are  doing  comparatively  little  missionary 
work.  They  give  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  the  European 
and  Eurasian  communities,  providing  costly  and  well-equipped 
schools  for  their  children,  and  neglecting  no  possible  means 
of  gaining  a  permanent  influence  over  them.  In  this  respect 
they  are  wiser  in  their  generation  than  many  Protestants. 
Both  in  England  and  America  it  is  common  to  hear  loud 
protestations  against  missionaries  doing  anything  for  Euro- 
peans or  Eurasians  in  India,  simply  because  they  chance  to 
bear  the  Christian  name  already.  This  is  a  very  short-sighted 
view,  as  I  shall  try  to  show  in  another  chapter.  In  some 
parts  of  Southern  India  the  Roman  Catholics  continue  to 
make  converts  from  the  heathen  ;  but,  for  the  most  part, 
their  efforts  are  now  confined  to  attempts  to  make  proselytes 
from  the  various  bodies  of  Christians  that  have  been  gathered 
out  of  heathenism  by  Protestant  missionaries.  This,  indeed, 
I  regret  to  say,  is  somewhat  characteristic  of  all  sacerdotal 
missionaries.  The  Christian  world  is  practically  dividing  into 
two  great  camps,  one  of  which  is  sacerdotal,  and  the  other 
evangelical.  The  term  Roman  Catholic  no  longer  suffices  to 
define  that  large  body  of  persons  bearing  the  Christian  name 
who  hold  what  are  popularly  known  as  Roman  Catholic  views. 
A  large  number  of  missionaries  are  now  found  in  India,  as  in 
other  parts  of  the  wrorld,  who  eschew  the  name  Protestant, 
and  yet  decline  to  be  called  Roman  Catholics.  They  are  sac- 
erdotalists,  and  hold  a  theory  which  logically  leads  them, 
whenever  an  opportunity  is  afforded,  to  gain  possession  of 
any  body  of  Christians  not  belonging  to  the  Church  with 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MISSIONS.  169 

which  they  chance  to  hold  fellowship.  Very  recently  a  small 
body  of  unworthy  and  schismatic  Christians  connected  with 
a  German  mission  in  Western  India,  were  induced  by  some 
of  these  men  belonging  to  one  of  the  sacerdotal  orders  which 
are  becoming  so  common  in  England,  to  unite  with  the 
Church  of  England;  whereupon  their  new  leaders  published 
to  the  world  that  these  converts  had  become  "reconciled  to 
the  Church."  In  Burma,  in  Eastern  Bengal,  in  Chota 
Nagpore,  and  in  the  Maratha  country  above  Bombay,  mis- 
sionaries of  this  class — in  each  case,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  with 
the  approval  of  an  Anglican  bishop — have  taken  advantage 
of  quarrels  among  the  converts  of  Protestant  missionaries  to 
draw  off  large  bodies  of  the  people,  and  induce  them  to  unite 
with  their  own  Church.  Their  theory  is,  that  the  Church  is 
the  "  body  of  Christ ;"  and  nearly  all  men  of  this  class  sincerely 
believe  that  every  Christian  who  is  outside  the  pale  of  what 
they  call  the  true  Church,  is  thus  separated  from  Christ  him- 
self; and  hence  they  think  they  are  doing  the  best  possible 
work  when  they  are  making  divisions  among. Christ's  dis- 
ciples, by  enticing  believers  to  separate  from  their  brethren. 
I  need  hardly  say  that  the  missionaries  belonging  to  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  the  leading  Protestant  Missionary 
Society  of  the  world,  have  no  sympathy  whatever  with  this 
doctrine,  or  with  this  deplorable  practice. 

The  Roman  Catholics,  as  is  well  known,  are  more  numer- 
ous in  India  than  the  Protestants;  but  it  should  always  be 
remembered  that  they  had  been  at  work  very  nearly  three 
centuries  before  the  great  Protestant  movement  of  the  pres- 
ent day  commenced.  Thus  far  the  Protestant  missions  in 
India  have  made  steady  progress,  and  have  never  been  ad- 
vancing so  rapidly  as  at  the  present  day.  The  Roman  Cath- 
olics, on  the  other  hand,  have  suffered  very  great  losses,  not 
only  in  India,  but  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  During  the 
Portuguese  era  their  missionaries  reported  100,000  converts  in 
Burma  alone.  Of  this  vast  number  no  trace  remained  at  the 
time  that  Dr.  Judson  began  his  work  on  the  Burmese  coast; 


170  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

and  when,  some  years  later,  the  miserable  remnant  of  these 
converts  was  found  in  Northern  Burma,  the  whole  commu- 
nity numbered  but  a  few  thousand  souls.  In  Ceylon  there  are 
only  about  half  as  many  Roman  Catholics  as  there  were  a 
century  ago.  The  well-known  Abbe  Dubois,  writing  in  1815, 
says:  "There  is  not  in  the  country  [South  India]  more  than 
a  third  of  the  Christians  who  were  found  in  it  eighty  years 
ago,  and  the  number  diminishes  every  day."  From  every 
point  of  view  the  early  Roman  Catholic  missions  in  India, 
and  in  the  entire  East,  must  be  regarded  as  a  failure. 

It  is  unhappily  but  too  true  that  vast  numbers  of  the 
Catholic  converts  in  India,  especially  such  as  are  descendants 
from  the  nominal  converts  of  the  earlier  missions,  show  no 
signs  of  moral  or  religious  progress  whatever,  and  are,  in 
fact,  little  more  than  semi-pagans.  They  retain  many  of  the 
superstitious  customs  of  their  ancestors,  and  their  public  pro- 
cessions, as  well  as  many  of  their  peculiar  religious  ceremo- 
nies, are  in  reality  little  more  than  Christian  imitations  of 
pagan  rites.  Caste  is  not  only  tolerated,  but  carefully  pro- 
tected. Priests  from  the  lower  castes  are  educated  and 
trained  for  service  among  their  own  castemeu,  while  an  en- 
tirely different  order  of  priests  are  trained  for  service  among 
the  higher  castes.  Christianity  has  nothing  to  hope  for  from 
so-called  converts  like  these.  The  only  possible  use  that 
they  can  serve  is  to  furnish  figures  for  the  census  tables, 
which  show  a  progress  which  is  in  a  large  measure  fictitious. 

Education  is  grievously  neglected  in  all  those  sections 
where  the  mass  of  the  people  have  become  Roman  Catholics, 
as  indeed  is  the  case  all  over  the  world."  It  is  a  striking 
fact  that  while  in  non-Catholic  countries  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics are  very  active  in  all  manner  of  educational  work,  they 
almost  wholly  neglect  it,  so  far  as  the  education  of  the 
masses  is  concerned,  in  those  countries  where  they  have 
everything  to  themselves.  At  a  time  when  the  people  of 
Rome  itself  were  deprived  of  the  blessings  of  a  liberal  edu- 
cation, Roman  Catholic  colleges  were  built  and  sustained  all 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MISSIONS.  171 

over  the  Protestant  world,  as  well  as  in  non-Christian  lands. 
It  needs  hardly  be  added  that  Bible  knowledge  is  scarcely  im- 
parted to  these  converts  at  all,  and  that,  in  consequence,  they 
are  deplorably  ignorant  of  even  the  elements  of  Christian 
truth.  Their  priests  have  always  taught  the  people  with 
commendable  diligence  such  traditions  and  formularies  as 
they  deemed  necessary  for  faithful  members  of  the  true 
Church;  but  nothing  like  an  attempt  to  give  a  correct  and 
full  knowledge  of  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  to  all  the  peo- 
ple is  ever  made  in  any  Roman  Catholic  mission-field. 

One  result  of  this  neglect  to  give  a  liberal  education  to 
their  converts  has  been,  that  the  Roman  Catholic  missiona- 
ries have  been  unable  to  raise  up  any  converts  of  command- 
ing influence  in  India.  Even  when  we  go  back  to  the  be- 
ginning, and  look  over  the  history  of  their  missions  during 
almost  four  centuries,  we  fail  to  find  any  native  Indians  who 
have  risen  to  distinction,  or  who  have  exerted  any  marked 
influence  upon  their  own  countrymen.  It  is  very  differ- 
ent, however,  with  the  converts  of  Protestant  missions. 
They  are  found  here  and  there  in  prominent  positions,  and 
are  cheerfully  recognized  by  the  Hindus  as  representative 
men.  If  it  be  said  that  the  number  of  these  prominent 
converts  is  but  few,  the  explanation  is  that  the  total  number 
of  converts  is  at  least  comparatively  small,  and  that  it  is 
only  within  very  recent  years  that  the  children  of  the  first 
converts  have  grown  up  with  the  advantages  of  a  good  edu- 
cation, and  have  thus  found  an  opportunity  to  show  their 
ability  in  public  places.  Not  many  years  ago,  during  a  time 
of  great  excitement  in  Calcutta,  growing  out  of  the  imprison- 
ment of  a  Bengali  editor  for  an  alleged  contempt  of  court, 
an  immense  mass-meeting  of  the  Bengali  people  was  called 
in  the  northern  part  of  the  city.  Three  speakers  and  a 
chairman  were  selected  for  the  occasion,  and  it  was  a  very 
noteworthy  fact,  which  attracted  no  little  attention  at  the 
time,  that  of  the  four  persons  thus  honored,  the  chairman 
and  one  of  the  speakers  were  Protestant  Christians.  Other 


172  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

instances  have  occurred  from  time  to  time,  clearly  showing 
that  the  India  of  the  future  has  much  to  hope  for  from  the 
Protestant  converts  scattered  through  the  empire,  and  that 
she  will  not  hesitate  to  make  them  her  leaders  whenever 
occasion  calls  for  their  help.  This  prominence,  which  has 
been  achieved  so  easily  and  so  naturally  by  Protestant  con- 
verts, becomes  the  more  striking  when  we  remember,  not 
only  that  the  Roman  Catholics  are  vastly  more  numerous, 
but  also  that  they  have  had  the  whole  field  to  themselves 
through  nearly  four  centuries,  a  fact  which  makes  their  com- 
parative failure  much  more  conspicuous,  and  the  success  of 
the  Protestants  much  more  creditable. 

We  very  often  hear  it  said  in  England  and  America,  that 
Roman  Catholicism  must  be  much  more  attractive  to  the 
people  of  India,  as  well  as  of  other  non-Christian  lands, 
from  the  fact  that  its  public  services  are  so  imposing,  and 
that  its  ceremonies  are  such  as  must  almost  inevitably  at- 
tract a  people  who  pay  much  attention  to  the  outward  forms 
of  religion,  and  understand  little  about  spiritual  things. 
This  impression,  however,  so  far  as  India  is  concerned,  is 
founded  upon  a  very  great  mistake.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  people  of  India  are  not  attracted  in  any  special  manner 
by  the  impressive  ceremonies  which  they  witness  in  Roman 
Catholic  churches,  or  in  any  properly  conducted  Roman 
Catholic  procession.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Catholic  mis- 
sionaries have,  from  the  first,  found  it  necessary  to  adapt 
their  service  to  the  tastes  of  the  heathen,  having  utterly 
failed  to  win  them  by  their  service  and  ceremonies,  as  wit- 
nessed in  strictly  Roman  Catholic  countries.  As  remarked 
above,  the  observer  in  India  is  much  more  struck  with  the 
heathen  element  in  the  Catholic  exhibitions  which  he  wit- 
nesses in  India,  than  with  their  strict  conformity  to  Roman 
Catholic  doctrine  and  usage.  The  people  of  India  are  fond 
of  show  of  a  certain  kind,  but  not  of  elaborate  ceremonies. 
These  have  a  charm  for  Brahmaus  and  those  fond  of  myste- 
rious rites,  but  with  the  mass  of  the  people  the  case  is  quite 


ROMAN  CA  THOLIC  MISSIONS.  1  73 

different.  If  they  have  a  public  exhibition  of  any  kind,  it 
must  be  very  simple  in  plan  and  execution.  It  may  be  at- 
tended with  noisy  demonstrations,  with  a  great  display  of 
gaudy  color,  and  with  a  general  manifestation  of  enthusiasm 
among  the  people;  but  a  carefully  arranged  and  slowly  exe- 
cuted ceremony  of  any  kind  will  in  every  case  fail  to  attract. 
Hence,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  Roman  Catholic  missions  the 
ignorant  heathen  are  not  won  by  the  form  of  service  which 
they  see.  They  are  much  more  easily  reached  by  simple, 
direct  teaching  than  by  any  ceremony  whatever.  Their 
hearts  are  open  and  their  minds  sufficiently  inquisitive  to 
give  them  an  interest  in  the  message  which  is  brought  to 
them,  if  it  is  presented  with  even  moderate  skill  and  fidelity. 
Simple  teaching  in  their  own  tongue,  with  simple  Christian 
hymns,  sung  to  simple  native  airs,  will  be  found  vastly  more 
effective  in  winning  and  holding  the  attention  of  the  people, 
than  the  elaborate  and  imposing  ceremonies  which  are  popu*- 
larly  believed  to  be  a  chief  source  of  the  success  of  Catholic 
missionaries.  It  is  strange,  indeed,  how  many  mistakes  have 
gained  currency  in  England  and  America  concerning  the 
relative  value  of  the  methods  adopted  by  the  Catholic  and 
Protestant  missionaries.  As  a  simple  matter  of  fact,  so  far 
as  India  is  concerned,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  Protestant 
has  the  advantage.  His  message  is  more  intelligible,  his 
method  is  more  direct,  and  the  open  Bible  in  his  hand  is  an 
unfailing  source  of  power,  which  sooner  or  later  makes  itself 
felt  among  the  people. 

With  regard  to  Catholic  and  Protestant  missions  through- 
out the  whole  world,  mistakes  like  those  mentioned  above 
are  very  prevalent.  It  is  supposed,  for  instance,  that  the 
Roman  Catholics  are  far  in  advance  of  the  Protestants  in 
almost  all  countries  where  they  have  planted  missions;  but 
such  is  by  no  means  the  case.  The  Catholics  were  in  the 
field  first,  and  indeed  had  been  engaged  in  their  work  for 
nearly  three  centuries  before  the  great  Protestant  movement 
of  modern  times  began.  But  so  far  from  the  Roman  Catholic 


174  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

missions  being  in  advance  of  the  Protestant,  there  are 
more  Protestant  missionaries  at  work  in  the  world  than 
Roman  Catholic,  the  former  numbering  about  3,500,  while 
the  latter,  according  to  the  authority  of  the  "  Missiones 
Catholicce,"  published  in  1886,  numbered  only  2,800  Euro- 
pean missionaries,  with  700  natives  ordained  in  their  various 
foreign  mission-fields.  The  whole  number  of  adherents  in 
all  the  Roman  Catholic  missions  of  the  world,  according  to 
the  above  authority,  was  2,800,000,  with  7,500  churches  and 
chapels,  4,500  schools,  and  110,000  pupils.  Of  the  above 
adherents,  no  less  than  1,180,000  wrere  credited  to  India. 
The  total  number  of  adherents  to  Protestant  missions  at  the 
present  time  is  about  equal  to  that  of  the  Roman  Catholics, 
while  they  have  more  than  three  times  as  many  schools, 
with  a  correspondingly  greater  number  of  pupils.  They  are 
carrying  the  word  of  God  with  them  to  all  the  kingdoms 
and  peoples  and  tribes  and  nations  to  which  they  go,  having 
during  the  present  century  translated  the  Bible  into  nearly 
three  hundred  different  tongues.  From  whatever  point  of 
view  this  subject  is  examined,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Prot- 
estant missions  of  the  world  are  more  successful,  and 
infinitely  more  deserving  of  support,  than  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics, whether  they  be  considered  as  a  whole  or  taken  for  the 
purpose  of  comparison  from  their  very  best  fields. 


Chapter  XIII. 
PROTESTANT  MISSIONS  IN  INDIA. 

THE  Danish  Government  deserves  to  be  held  in  lasting 
honor  for  its  generous  and  liberal,  as  well  as  wise  and 
sensible,  policy  in  dealing  with  the  missionary  question 
in  its  Eastern  possessions.  While  England  was  openly  hos- 
tile to  everything  bearing  the  name  of  missionary;  while 
France  manifested  the  narrow  bigotry  which  has  always 
marked  its  treatment  of  Protestant  missions;  while  Portugal 
disgraced  the  Christian  name  by  its  cruelty  and  intolerance, 
and  Holland  was  either  hostile  or  ready  to  subordinate  the 
missionary  work  to  its  own  policy,  Denmark  alone  pursued  a 
liberal  policy,  a  century  in  advance  of  the  age.  As  early  as 
even  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  King  of 
Denmark  openly  supported  the  missionary  enterprise,  and  di- 
rected the  governors  of  his  settlements  in  India  to  assist  the 
missionaries  in  all  lawful  ways.  It  ought  to  be  said,  to  the 
credit  of  George  I,  of  England,  that  personally  he  was  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  King  of  Denmark  in  this  matter,  BO  much 
so  that  he  sent  an  autograph  letter  to  the  Danish  mission- 
aries who  went  out  to  Tranquebar  in  1705 :  but,  unlike  the 
King  of  Denmark,  he  did  not  make  his  own  views  the  policy 
of  his  Government;  and  in  succeeding  years  the  English 
Government,  as  we  shall  see,  was  led  to  assume  an  open  and 
avowedly  hostile  attitude  toward  the  missionary  enterprise 
in  India. 

The  first  Danish  missionaries  sent  out  to  Trauquebar  in 
1705  were  Messrs.  Ziegenbalg  and  Plutschau.  These  pioneers, 
as  well  as  their  successors,  were  good  men,  and  some  of  them 
attained  distinction  as  translators  and  promoters  of  education 

175 


176  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

and  literature.  Their  work  also,  as  missionaries,  was  pros- 
perous, and  was  extended  to  the  neighboring  kingdom  of 
Tanjore,  and  subsequently  to  Tinnevelli.  Many  towns  and 
villages  were  occupied,  and  finally  their  work  extended  up 
the  coast  as  far  as  Madras.  So  far  as  can  be  gathered  from 
the  records,  they  seem  to  have  gathered  around  them  about 
fifteen  thousand  Christians;  but  for  various  reasons,  some  of 
which  we  can  readily  understand,  and  others  which  can  only 
be  conjectured,  their  work  did  not  prove  permanently  suc- 
cessful. In  the  first  place,  they  tolerated  caste,  and  this  of 
itself  was  sufficient  to  hinder  anything  like  permanent  suc- 
cess. Missionaries  of  the  present  day  are  sometimes  cen- 
sured for  the  persistency  with  which  they  oppose  the  introduc- 
tion of  Hindu  caste  into  the  Christian  Church;  but  those  who 
find  fault  with  them  do  not  seem  to  be  aware  that  many  ex- 
periments have  been  made  in  the  direction  of  caste  toleration, 
but  always  with  lamentable  results.  While  the  caste  system 
is  perfectly  adapted  to  such  a  religion  as  Hinduism,  it  is  in- 
herently and  hopelessly  at  variance  with  the  very  spirit  of 
Christianity,  and  every  attempt  to  tolerate  it  ends  in  trouble 
and  disaster. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  the  chief  cause  of  the  decay 
of  the  Danish  mission  in  the  extreme  South  was  political, 
rather  th'an  social  or  religious.  The  Danish  Government  did 
not  succeed  in  making  its  settlements  permanent,  and  the 
missionaries  somewhat  naturally  left  one  point  after  another, 
when  the  protection  of  their  Government  was  withdrawn. 
They  were  supported  to  some  extent  by  English  Christians, 
and  more  largely  by  the  Germans,  and  might  have  main- 
tained their  ground  permanently  had  they  never  learned  to 
depend  upon  the  active  support  of  their  Government.  In 
the  mission-field,  as  in  Christian  lands,  the  support  of  Csesar  ia 
very  apt  to  prove  a  snare  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  however 
fairly  the  support  may  seem  to  be  offered,  and  however  plau- 
sibly the  policy  may  be  defended.  Be  the  cause  what  it  may, 
this  early  mission  of  the  Danes  did  not  prove  permanent,  and 


PRO  TEST  A  NT  MISSIONS.  177 

it  must  be  added  that  the  large  number  of  Christians  collected 
by  them  seem  to  have  been  scattered  abroad,  or  at  least 
failed  to  become  the  founders  of  a  great  Christian  organiza- 
tion. Nevertheless,  the  mission  was  by  no  means  a  failure. 
It  was  the  forerunner  of  the  great  movement  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  It  proved  o:  <*reat  value  to  Carey  and  his 
associates  in  England,  when  about  to  begin  their  work,  by 
drawing  the  attention  of  the  Christian  public  to  the  possi- 
bilities of  missionary  work  in  India.  It  was  a  John  the 
Baptist  to  the  great  missionary  movement  which  is  spread- 
ing its  network  of  evangelizing  agencies  over  the  Indian 
Empire  to-day ;  and  the  missionary  who  would  speak  lightly 
of  the  good  men  who  labored  in  the  Danish  mission  in  the 
last  century,  understands  very  little  of  the  general  situation, 
and  much  less  of  the  good  men  who  began  the  work  in 
Tranquebar. 

First  and  forever  foremost  among  the  Danish  mission- 
aries was  the  renowned  Schwartz.  This  great  and  good  man 
was  undoubtedly  a  model  missionary  in  the  spirit  in  which 
he  worked,  and,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  wise  policy  which  he 
pursued.  If  he  erred  in  tolerating  caste,  he  simply  fell  into 
the  error  of  his  age;  and  many  who  might  lightly  condemn 
him  now,  would  doubtless  have  pursued  the  same  course  if 
they  had  landed  in  India  a  century  earlier,  and  found  the 
work  as  it  existed  when  Schwartz  took  it  up.  He  was 
everybody's  friend  and  helper,  and,  while  beloved  by  the 
poor,  was  also  the  trusted  counselor  of  the  native  princes 
within  whose  territories  he  labored.  The  story  which  used 
to  be  related  in  the  school-books  of  a  Raja's  request,  when  a 
certain  demand  was  made  upon  him  by  the  English  Govern- 
ment, that  the  missionary  Schwartz  might  be  sent  to  him, 
because  he  could  trust  him  and  could  rely  upon  both  his 
wisdom  and  his  generosity,  is  perfectly  authentic.  It  is  also 
true  that  when  a  certain  prince  was  near  his  death,  he  sent 
for  this  good  missionary,  to  request  his  advice  with  regard  to 
the  policy  to  be  pursued  by  his  son.  And  when  Schwartz 

12 


178  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

himself  died,  the  Raja  of  Tanjore  wept  like  a  child  by  his 
bedside,  and  himself  carefully  and  tenderly  covered  the 
corpse  with  a  golden  cloth.  The  name  of  Schwartz  will  al- 
ways occupy  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  annals  of  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise ;  and  if  the  early  Danish  mission  of  the 
last  century  had  accomplished  nothing  more  than  to  give 
^o  India  and  to  the  Christian  world  the  illustrious  example 
of  this  great  and  good  man,  it  could  not  be  said  to  have  been 
planted  in  vain. 

As  intimated  elsewhere,  however,  the  actual  beginning  of 
the  present  great  Protestant  missionary  movement  in  India 
takes  its  date  from  the  arrival  of  Dr.  Carey  in  Calcutta,  in 
1793.  Schwartz  was  still  living,  and  his  death  did  not  occur 
till  five  years  later.  The  remnants  of  the  Danish  mission 
were  gathered  up  and  cared  for  by  English  societies — chiefly 
those  of  the  Anglican  Church — early  in  the  present  century; 
but  so  slight  was  the  impression  made  upon  the  public  mind 
in  India  and  England  by  that  work,  that  the  beginning  of  the 
work  in  Bengal  by  Dr.  Carey  was  universally  looked  upon 
as  the  initiation  of  the  new  movement.  The  Danish  missions 
were  scarcely  noticed;  and  as  the  Churches,  one  by  one,  took 
up  the  work,  and  sent  out  their  missionaries,  for  the  most 
part,  to  the  field  which  had  been  opened  by  Dr.  Carey,  the 
great  missionary  enterprise  of  the  present  century  took  its 
shape,  and  assumed  its  important  position  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Christians  of  Europe  and  America. 

It  is  extremely  difficult  to  account  for  the  early  hostility 
of  the  British  East  India  Company  to  missionary  work  in 
India.  This  company,  as  is  well  known,  was  really  the 
governing  power  of  the  infant  Indian  Empire,  but  it  re- 
flected faithfully  the  feelings  and  policy  of  the  actual  En- 
glish rulers  of  the  day,  including  some  of  the  greatest  names 
in  English  history.  The  younger  Pitt  faithfully  supported 
the  representatives  of  the  Company  in  Bengal ;  but  while  its 
defenders  were  for  years  in  a  hopeless  minority,  it  ought  to 
be  said  in  honor  of  Clive  that  he  never  shared  the  fears  and 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS.  179 

misgivings  of  the  great  Indian  leaders  of  that  day.  He  saw 
no  impropriety  in  boldly  trying  to  plant  Christianity  among 
the  Hindus,  and  certainly  felt  no  danger  in  view  of  the  pres- 
ence of  a  dozen  obscure  missionaries  in  different  parts  of 
Bengal.  He  knew  India  better  than  perhaps  any  one  else 
who  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  Government,  and  it  must 
have  seemed  to  his  sturdy  English  nature  an  absurd  and  al- 
together discreditable  thing  to  make  so  much  ado  about  the 
proceedings  of  men  like  Dr.  Carey  and  his  humble  fellow- 
workers.  Be  the  cause  what  it  may,  the  humiliating  fact  re- 
mains that  for  many  years  missionaries  were  treated  with 
unconcealed  hostility  by  the  English  authorities  in  India, 
and  Dr.  Carey  himself,  one  of  the  grandest  representatives 
England  has  ever  had  in  the  East,  was  obliged  to  seek  an 
asylum  at  Serampore  from  his  own  hostile  countrymen, 
under  the  never-failing  protection  of  the  King  of  Denmark. 
It  needs  hardly  be  added  that  while  the  East  India  Company 
ultimately  failed  in  its  attempt  to  keep  Christian  missionaries 
and  Christianity  itself  out  of  India,  at  least  so  far  as  the  na- 
tives of  the  country  were  concerned,  yet,  for  the  time  being, 
the  work  was  hindered  and  hampered  in  many  ways,  and 
perhaps  years  of  successful  labor  were  thus  lost  to  the  gen- 
eral enterprise.  This  should  always  be  taken  into  account 
when  studying  the  missionary  question  as  it  has  practically 
been  before  the  public  during  the  present  century.  It  was 
not  until  1833  that  the  last  restrictions  were  removed,  and 
every  Christian  missionary  in  the  empire  clothed  with  the 
freedom  which  is  now  enjoyed  by  all  persons  bearing  the 
Christian  name. 

A  careful  examination  of  the  process  by  which  a  mission 
is  established  in  a  heathen  land  will  show  that,  as  a  general 
rule,  it  requires  about  one  generation  to  get  the  laborers 
fairly  settled  and  at  work.  So  much  time  has  to  be  oc- 
cupied in  learning  the  language  and  becoming  acquainted 
with  the  peculiarities  of  the  people,  and  so  much  time  is 
often  wasted — if  the  terra  wasted  can  properly  be  applied 


180  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA 

in  such  a  case — in  what  might  be  called  experimenting; 
that  is,  in  trying  one  plan  after  another,  most  01  them  prov- 
ing failures,  until  at  last  the  workers  get  settled  down  to 
their  task,  and  are  prepared  to  go  forward  with  it.  if,  is 
not  enough  that  the  workers  themselves  must  learn  how  to 
perform  their  duty,  but  a  mission  is  never  planted  and  fairly 
at  work  until  it  has  secured  a  corps  of  converts,  and  has 
taught  some  of  them  to  take  up  the  work  which  must  ulti- 
mately pass  into  their  hands.  Keeping  these  facts  in  mind, 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  present  century  must  have  been  well 
advanced  before  the  Protestant  Churches  of  England  and 
America  had  really  grappled  with  their  gigantic  task  in 
India. 

The  English  Baptists  entered  the  field  in  1793.  The 
Congregationalists,  or  Independents  of  England,  represented 
by,  the  London  Missionary  Society,  followed  in  1798.  The 
Church  Missionary  Society,  which  represents  the  evangelical 
wiug  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  which  is  at  present  the 
strongest  Protestant  missionary  society  in  the  world,  took 
up  the  work  in  1807.  The  American  Board,  which  repre- 
sents the  Congregationalists  of  the  United  States,  followed 
in  1812,  and  the  American  Baptists,  by  adopting  Dr.  Judson 
as  their  missionary,  came  upon  the  scene  in  1814.  The  Scotch 
Presbyterians  did  not  unfold  their  banner  in  India  till  1830; 
while  the  American  Presbyterians  did  not  send  out  their  first 
missionary  till  1834.  The  English  Methodists  sent  out  Dr. 
Coke  with  a  band  of  six  young  men  in  1814;  but  the  Amer- 
ican Methodists  were  not  represented  in  India  until  1856. 
Other  smaller  societies  have  sent  out  missionaries  at  various 
dates,  but  the  majority  of  them  not  until  after  the  middle  of 
the  century.  Taking  the  work  as  a  whole,  it  has  hardly 
been  on  trial  more  than  half  a  century,  or,  at  most,  two 
generations.  Some  of  the  most  vigorous  and  successful  mis- 
sions in  India  to-day  have  been  planted  since  the  middle  of 
the  century. 

What  are  the  results  thus  far  attained  'I     It  needs  hardly 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS.  181 

be  said  that  the  whole  work  has  again  and  again  been 
branded  as  a  practical  failure.  Tourists,  in  their  hasty  flight 
around  the  world,  are  constantly  reporting  in  the  home  lands 
that  the  missionaries  are  either  deceiving  themselves,  or  de- 
ceiving the  Christian  public  at  home,  by  reporting  a  success 
which  has  no  existence ;  and  plenty  of  intelligent  men  and 
women  can  be  found  in  India  who  look  upon  the  whole 
movement  with  the  utmost  contempt.  It  is  perfectly  natural 
and  reasonable,  in  view  of  reports  and  accusations  of  this 
kind,  that  many  Christians  in  England  and  America,  with 
the  best  and  kindest  feelings  towards  the  missionaries,  and 
with  not  only  a  willingness  but  an  intense  desire  to  believe 
in  their  work,  should  doubt  whether  it  is  really  prospering 
in  any  practical  sense,  and  whether  it  holds  out  any  prospect 
of  ever  attaining  so  magnificent  a  result  as  the  conversion  of 
one-fifth  of  the  human  race  to  Christianity.  Before  speaking 
of  the  facts  as  they  exist  in  India,  it  might  be  well  enough 
to  remind  all  persons  who  have  such  misgivings,  that  both 
England  and  America  abound  with  critics  and  opponents 
who  talk  in  precisely  the  same  way  about  Christian  labor  at 
home  in  its  best  form  in  both  town  and  country.  In  fact, 
we  never  cease  hearing  it  said  that  Christianity  has  lost  all 
its  vigor ;  that  churches  in  the  home  cities  are  little  more 
than  social  clubs;  that  the  Christianity  of  those  lands  is  un- 
able to  grapple  with  the  great  forms  of  vice  which  prevail 
there;  and  that,  in  short,  failure  is  branded  upon  everything 
which  bears  the  distinctive  mark  of  Christian  work.  It 
ought  to  be  always  remembered  that  only  Christians  can  ap- 
preciate Christian  work.  That  which  a  good  man  calls  suc- 
cess, an  unbeliever  may  regard  as  failure.  Very  little  that 
a  good  man  does  can  be  appreciated  by  a  thorough  man  of 
the  world.  Paul's  life  was  regarded,  no  doubt,  as  a  lament- 
able failure,  not  only  by  the  Jews  of  his  age,  but  by  every 
polished  Greek  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  Our  Saviour 
himseli,  as  he  hung  upon  the  cross,  was  no  doubt  regarded  as 
a  man  who  had  lived  and  died  in  vain.  The  critics  of 


182  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Indian  missions  are  neither  better  nor  worse  than  other  men  of 
the  same  kind.  Most  of  them  are  persons  who  could  not  ap- 
preciate Christian  work  in  its  best  form  if  they  saw  it;  but, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  very  few  of  them  have  such  tastes  as  lead 
them  into  those  associations  where  they  could  see  Christian 
work  if  they  wished  to  examine  it.  Even  good  men  may 
rashly  fall  into  mistakes  in  reporting  on  such  matters.  A 
prominent  Christian  of  England,  in  a  published  book,  at- 
tempted to  compare,  or  contrast,  the  work  of  Protestant 
and  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  in  the  city  of  Singapore; 
and,  in  doing  so,  told  how  he  had  visited  a  Presbyterian 
Church,  spoke  of  its  missionaries  and  their  work,  and  failed 
to  discover  that  one  of  the  most  vigorous  and  remarkable 
missions  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  had  its  head- 
quarters within  rifle-shot  of  the  very  church  which  he  criticised. 
The  largest  mission-school  for  Chinese  in  any  part  of  the 
world  was  almost  within  hearing  of  this  good  man ;  and  yet 
he  left  Singapore  without  discovering  that  it  had  any  exist- 
ence, and  wreut  on  his  way  to  report  in  England  that  the 
Roman  Catholics  had  seven  thousand  converts  in  the  Straits 
Settlements,  of  which  Singapore  is  the  capital,  while  the 
Protestants  had  but  a  mere  handful.  The  good  man  not  only 
failed  to  discover  the  existence  of  our  own  mission,  but 
omitted  to  mention  that  the  Roman  Catholics  had  reported 
tens  of  thousands  of  converts  in  that  region  more  than  two 
centuries  before,  and  that,  instead  of  prospering,  as  he  repre- 
sented them,  they  were  really  decaying,  their  tens  of  thou- 
sands having  dwindled  down  to  the  comparative  handful  of 
seven  thousand. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  large  body  of  native  Christians 
have  grown  up  in  the  empire  during  the  present  century. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  at  first  the  conversions  were  few, 
and  that  for  more  than  half  a  century  the  rate  of  progress 
was  slow.  Nevertheless,  from  the  very  beginning  the 
growth  has  been  constant,  never  for  a  single  year  meeting 
with  an  interruption.  It  should  also  be  noted  that  the  ratio 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS.  .183 

of  increase  has  thus  far  been  a  rising  one.  This  is  contrary 
to  the  usual  rule,  and  while  we  can  not  anticipate  that  it 
will  continue,  yet  it  undoubtedly  indicates  that  the  general 
condition  of  missionary  work  in  India  is  healthy  and  pros- 
perous. 

Every  possible  effort  has  been  made  to  secure  the 
latest  statistics  of  Protestant  missions  in  time  for  insertion 
in  this  chapter,  but  up  to  the  hour  of  going  to  press  the  ex- 
pected material  has  not  been  received.  A  census  is  taken  by 
the  missionaries  themselves  every  ten  years,  and  presented  at 
the  meeting  of  the  Decennial  Conference,  which  takes  place 
at  the  close  of  the  second  year  of  each  decade.  This  report 
is  now  almost  due,  and  possibly  some  of  its  data  may  be  re- 
ceived in  time  for  insertion  near  the  end  of  the  volume. 
The  same  difficulty  stands  in  the  way  of  more  copious  ex- 
tracts from  the  Government  census  of  February,  1891. 

The  earliest  trustworthy  enumeration  of  Protestant  Chris- 
tians in  India  (native)  was  made  in  1851.  Beginning  at 
that  date  and  counting  by  decades,  we  have  the  following  evi- 
dence of  steady  and  rapid  growth. 

1861.  1861.  1871.  1881. 

102,951  213,370  318,363  528,590 

The  above  figures  represent  the  whole  population  of  con- 
verts. The  following  will  show  the  number  of  communi- 
cants at  the  same  dates.  In  both  .tables  Burma  is  not  in- 
cluded in  the  enumeration  for  1851. 

1851.  1861.  1871.  1881. 

17,306  47,274  78,494  145,097 

It  will  be  said,  of  course,  that  the  mass  of  these  converts 
are  wretchedly  poor,  having  been  gathered  for  the  most  part 
from  the  very  lowest  castes,  and  that  they  do  not  now,  and 
never  can  be  expected  in  the  future  to,  exercise  any  percep- 
tible influence  upon  the  mass  of  the  people.  It  is  readily 
admitted  that  the  great  majority  of  these  Christians  are  poor, 
and  also  that  they  are  gathered  from  the  lowest  classes,  but 


184  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

it  is  by  no  means  true  that  the  Indian  Christians,  as  a  body, 
do  not  wield  an  important  influence  in  the  country.  The 
Hindu,  an  able  paper  published  in  Madras,  an  avowed  organ 
of  the  Hindus,  in  a  recent  issue,  speaks  as  follows  of  the 
native  Christians: 

"  The  progress  of  education  among  the  girls  of  the  native  Christian 
community,  and  the  absence  of  caste  restrictions,  will  eventually  give 
them  an  advantage  which  no  amount  of  intellectual  precocity  can 
compensate  the  Brahmans  for.  We  recently  approved  the  statement 
ot  a  Bombay  paper  that  the  social  eminence  that  the  Parsees  so  de- 
servedly enjoy  at  the  present  moment,  was  due  to  these  two  causes, 
namely:  their  women  are  well  educated,  and  they  are  hound  by  no 
restrictions  of  caste.  These  two  advantages  slowly  make  themselves 
felt  among  our  native  Christian  brethren,  and  it  is  probable  that  they 
will  soon  be  the  Parsees  of  Southern  India.  They  will  furnish  the 
most  distinguished  public  servants,  barristers,  merchants,  and  citizens 
among  the  various  classes  of  the  native  community." 

The  paper  from  which  this  extract  is  taken  advocates  an 
enlightened  policy,  and,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  extract,  is 
able  to  appreciate  the  advantages  which  Christians  enjoy. 
But  after  reading  this  one  extract,  it  is  idle  to  say  that  the 
native  Christians  of  India  are  exercising  no  influence  upon 
the  public  mind.  As  a  community  they  are  rising  rapidly, 
and  what  the  above  writer  says  is  perfectly  true;  they  will 
become  the  leading  men  and  women  of  the  country  at  an 
early  day,  unless  the  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  themselves 
take  the  warning  which  events  are  giving  them,  and  trample 
upon  or  throw  away  forever  the  restrictions  by.  which  they 
are  now  hampered. 

In  every  university  examination,  and  in  every  other  pub- 
lic examination  of  any  kind  held  in  India  in  which  all 
classes  compete  on  equal  terms,  the  Christians,  in  proportion 
to  their  numbers,  take  the  lead.  This  has  been  true  for  a 
number  of  years,  and  will  become  more  strikingly  true  as 
time  passes.  When  it  is  acknowledged  that  many,  even  o/ 
those  who  attain  comparative  distinction,  have  risen  from 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS.  185 

very  humble  circumstances,  it  does  them  the  more  credit, 
and  at  the  same  time  affords  substantial  ground  for  hoping 
for  still  better  success  in  the  future.  For  some  years  I  have 
noticed  that  leading  members  of  the  Indian  Christian  com- 
munity discuss  public  affairs,  not  ouly  with  an  ability  equal 
to  that  of  any  of  their  countrymen,  but  with  a  certain  free- 
dom which  is  almost  impossible  on  the  part  of  Hindus  and 
Mohammedans.  The  time  is  near,  also,  when  these  Indian 
Christians  will  be  able  to  gain  the  ear  of  the  Christian  pub- 
lic in  England  more  successfully  than  is  now  possible,  and 
in  nearly  all  matters  pertaining  to  political  progress  or  re- 
form in  India,  the  people  have  learned  to  look  to  England 
as  the  ultimate  source  from  which  all  their  effectual  help 
must  come.  Beyond  all  doubt  the  Christians  will  speedily 
assume  an  importance  which  no  equal  number  of  Hindus  or 
Mohammedans  can  ever  hope  to  attain;  and  it  seems  certain 
that  when  the  Christian  community  in  India  numbers  ten 
millions,  it  will  wield  a  greater  influence  on  the  destinies  of 
the  empire  than  all'  the  great  mass  of  Hindus  and  Moham- 
medans combined.  This  remark,  however,  may  seem  to  some 
like  looking  forward  to  a  period  indefinitely  distant,  and 
hence  of  no  practical  value.  That  day,  however,  is  not  far 
distant.  Ten  years  hence  the  Protestant  Christians  of  India 
will  number  a  million,  if  not  more;  and  when  this  mile- 
stone is  reached,  the  rest  of  the  journey  will  prove  very 
much  shorter  than  its  earlier  stages.  Probably  more  than 
half  of  those  who  read  these  pages  will  live  to  see  the  day 
when  ten  million  Indian  Christians  will  lift  their  voices  in 
grateful  praise  to  God,  and  take  their  stand  on  the  side  of 
Christian  liberty  and  progress  among  their  countrymen. 

It  is  usual  for  most  persons  to  estimate  the  success  or 
failure  of  missions  according  to  the  number  of  converts  re- 
ported at  a  given  time ;  but  this  would  be  a  most  inadequate 
test  to  apply  in  the  case  of  missionary  work  in  India.  The 
indirect  results  of  the  presence  of  missionaries  in  the  empire 
are  more  striking,  in  some  respects,  than  even  the  goodly 


186  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

array  of  converts  described  above.  In  the  first  place,  the 
Protestant  missionaries  in  India  have  from  the  first  been  the 
advocates  of  reform  in  the  broadest  sense  of  the  word.  The 
abolition  of  widow-burning  and  of  infanticide,  as  it  existed  a 
century  ago  in  Lower  Bengal,  was  perhaps  more  largely 
owing  to  the  efforts  of  the  missionaries  than  of  all  other  par- 
ties combined.  These  good  men  were  able  to  influence  pub- 
lic opinion  in  England,  and  in  this  way  they  have  often  in 
the  past  secured  the  favorable  action  of  the  Indian  Govern- 
ment. It  will  be  said,  of  course,  that  it  was  the  Indian 
Government  alone  which  effected  the  abolition  of  the  horrible 
practice  of  widow-burning,  and  that  the  credit  should  be 
given  to  it.  This  is  true ;  but  it  is  forgotten,  at  this  late  day, 
that  a  long  and  most  animated  battle  had  to  be  fought  in  In- 
dia, and  to  some  extent  in  England,  before  the  Indian  Gov- 
ernment was  moved  to  action.  The  missionaries  did  not  ac- 
complish all  that  was  done  in  all  these  cases,  but  it  may 
truthfully  be  said  that  but  for  their  advocacy  not  one  of  these 
reforms  would  probably  have  been  carried  out  to  this  day. 
They  are  the  men  who  faithfully  blew  the  trumpet,  by 
pointing  out  the  danger  and  the  shame  of  a  Christian  Govern- 
ment tolerating  such  unspeakable  enormities;  and  when  any 
great  evil  is  persistently  held  up  in  the  clear  sunlight  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  it  becomes  only  a  question  of  time  as  to  how  long 
it  will  be  permitted  to  endure.  The  prohibition  of  child- 
marriage  has  not  yet  been  accomplished,  but  it  is  an  inevitable 
reform  of  the  not  distant  future;  and  while  the  missionaries 
already  have  the  co-operation  of  many  enlightened  Hindus, 
yet  when  the  great  consummation  is  reached,  they  will  justly 
be  entitled  to  a  large,  if  not  the  largest,  share  of  the  credit 
due  for  so  great  an  achievement. 

To  the  Protestant  missionaries  of  India  is  also  due  the 
steady  and  healthy  improvement  in  public  morality  and  pub- 
lic opinion  which  has  taken  place  during  the  past  half  cen- 
tury. The  earlier  English  residents  in  India,  with  but  few 
exceptions,  adopted  the  standard  of  morality  which  they 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS.  187 

found  in  the  country.  The  harem  was  an  ordinary  appendage 
to  the  foreigner's  residence,  and  the  presence  of  its  inmates 
was  not  esteemed  any  more  disgraceful  in  the  eyes  of  the  pub- 
lic than  if  the  owner  had  been  a  Mohammedan  or  a  Hindu. 
Such  conduct  was  hardly  supposed  to  be  classified  under  the 
ordinary  term  immorality.  The  reader  of  the  life  of  Henry 
Marty n  will  remember  how  fiercely  his  rebukes  of  sin,  or 
indeed  his  very  presence,  was  resented  at  an  ordinary  dinner- 
table,  and  will  perhaps  be  led  to  suspect  that  he  was  too  irri- 
tating in  the  tone  of  his  conversation,  or  in  his  methods  of 
reproof.  To  understand  the  hostility  which  such  a  man  en- 
countered, the  reader  must  remember  that  the  society  in 
which  he  moved  was  one  which  had  practically  adopted  a 
heathen  standard  of  morality.  Other  causes  have  no  doubt 
contributed  to  bring  in  a  better  state  of  things  in  India  gen- 
erally ;  but  every  one  who  knows  anything  about  the  early 
history  of  the  Europeans  in  India,  will  admit  that  the  Chris- 
tian missionaries  of  the  empire  have  contributed  a  large  share 
toward  the  reformation  of  public  manners  in  the  European 
community.  Their  quiet  example,  their  persistent  protests, 
and  at  times  their  courageous  rebukes,  have  from  the  first  ex- 
erted a  profound  influence  upon  the  Europeans  generally,  and 
done  much  to  command  the  respect  of  the  Hindus  and  Mo- 
hammedans. 

The  Christian  missionaries  of  India  have  from  the  first 
arrayed  themselves  on  the  side  of  all  progressive  measures. 
They  have  been  known  for  years  by  their  almost  instinctive 
willingness  to  come  forward  as  protectors  of  the  poor.  In 
India  the  masses  of  the  people  are  very  poor,  and  very  fre- 
quently the  hand  of  the  rich  is  made  to  rest  very  heavily 
upon  them.  In  Bengal,  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago,  a  great  agitation  was  occasioned  by  what  was  affirmed  to 
be  oppression  on  the  part  of  European  indigo-planters  settled 
in  various  parts  of  the  province,  and  using  the  labor  of  the 
peasants  around  them.  The  missionaries  as  a  body  arrayed 
themselves  on  the  side  of  the  peasants,  and  one  of  their  num- 


188  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

ber,  the  Rev.  J.  Long,  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society, 
was  harshly  sentenced  by  a  Judge  of  the  High  Court  to  three 
months'  imprisonment  for  an  alleged  slander  of  the  European 
community.  It  needs  hardly  be  said  that  the  Bengali  people 
to  a  man  applauded  his  course,  and  to  this  day  gratefully  re- 
member what  he  did  in  their  behalf.  For  the  time  being  the 
missionaries  were  the  losing  party,  and  were  placed  under  the 
ban  of  what  was  called  public  opinion;  but  the  peasants  vir- 
tually won  the  case.  Laws  were"  enacted  protecting  them ; 
and  now  that  the  bitterness  of  partisan  feeling  has  been  for- 
gotten, the  missionaries  as  a  body  may  look  back  with  grate- 
ful pride  upon  the  action  of  their  brethren  of  that  day.  It  is 
still  true,  and  will  be  true  to  the  end,  that  the  Protestant 
missionaries  of  India  are  the  friends  of  the  poor.  Other 
struggles,  more  severe  perhaps  than  any  witnessed  in  the 
past,  are  probably  in  store  for  them ;  but  no  one  who  knows 
them  as  a  body  will  for  a  moment  feel  any  misgiving  as  to 
their  course  when  the  emergencies  arise.  This  fact,  perhaps 
more  than  any  other,  has  helped  to  convince  the  more  intelli- 
gent people  of  the  country,  not  only  that  Christian  mission- 
aries are  their  friends,  but  that  the  people  of  India  have  much 
to  hope  from  Christianity  itself. 

A  remarkable  change  in  public  opinion  has  been  witnessed 
during  the  past  quarter  of  a  century.  When  the  Mutiny 
closed,  the  people  of  India  generally  were  disposed  to  hold 
aloof  from  missionaries — not  because  they  personally  disliked 
them,  but  because  they  were  representatives  of  the  Christian 
religion.  Recently,  however,  on  two  or  three  very  prominent 
occasions,  the  mass  of  the  Hindus  have  thrown  the  whole 
weight  of  their  influence  in  favor  of  missionaries  and  their 
cause.  A  few  years  ago,  when  the  Commissioner  of  Police  in 
Calcutta  issued  an  order  forbidding  public  preaching  in  the 
streets  and  squares  of  the  city,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  cal- 
culated to  cause  breaches  of  the  peace,  the  natives,  to  a  man, 
arrayed  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  missionaries.  Three  of 
the  latter  refused  to  obey  the  Commissioner's  order,  and  were 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS.  189 

arrested  for  preaching  in  a  public  square.  The  case  was  tried 
by  a  bench  of  four  magistrates,  of  whom  one  was  a  Moham- 
medan barrister,  another  a  Hindu  barrister,  and  the  remain- 
ing two  Europeans.  After  hearing  all  the  evidence  for  the 
prosecution,  the  four  magistrates  told  the  lawyers  conducting 
the  case  for  the  defense  that  they  need  not  say  anything,  as 
they  were  convinced  that  there  was  no  case,  the  Commissioner 
having  exceeded  his  powers  in  attempting  to  prohibit  the 
preaching.  This  decision,  which  was  of  the  utmost  value  to 
the  missionaries  iu  a  country  where  nine-tenths  of  the  preach- 
ing must  be  done  in  the  open  air,  was  hailed  with  great  satis- 
faction by  the  entire  Hindu  community  of  Calcutta. 

Space  will  not  permit  me  to  speak  of  other  direct  and  in- 
direct results  of  missionary  labor  in  India.  Of  popular  ed- 
ucation it  might  be  said  that  the  missionaries  laid  its  first 
foundations;  and  although  the  movement  has  now  largely 
passed  out  of  their  hands,  their  achievement  is  none  the  less 
notable  and  praiseworthy.  It  could  not  be  expected  that 
they  would  retain  so  vast  a  work  as  this  in  their  own  hands ; 
but  their  influence  is  still  actively  exerted  in  connection  with 
the  general  interests  of  education,  and  for  many  years  to  come 
the  Government  will,  no  doubt,  continue  to  look  to  them  for 
assistance  in  the  field  in  which  they  can  do  so  much.  So  far  as 
the  education  of  women  is  concerned,  the  Protestant  mission- 
aries of  the  country  may  justly  claim  the  entire  credit  for  what 
has  been  done.  They  have  been  not  only  the  pioneers  in  this 
grand  field,  but  in  many  places  they  struggled  long  and  hard 
to  make  such  a  work  possible.  They  have  led  the  way  thus 
far;  but  this,  too,  is  proving  too  vast  a  work  to  be  controlled 
by  any  one  agency.  Every  Christian  should  feel  devoutly 
grateful  for  such  a  result.  The  missionaries,  as  a  body,  can 
not  control  the  education  of  a  whole  people,  and  should  be 
only  too  thankful  that  a  movement  which  was  so  difficult 
to  start  should  so  rapidly  pass  beyond  their  possible  control. 


Chapter  XIV. 
FRANCIS  XAVIER. 

FRANCIS  XAVIER  is  at  once  the  typical  saint  and  the 
typical  missionary  of  the  Roman  Catholic  world.     The 
annexed  portrait,  although  defective  enough  as  a  work  of  art, 
gives,  nevertheless,  a  striking  representation,  of  the  ideal  which 

everywhere  i  n 
the  East  is  sug- 
gested to  the 
devout  Roman 
Catholic  mind 
by  the  mention 
of  his  name. 
His  feme  as  a 
saint  has  gone 
out  into  all  the 
earth,  and  the 
purity  of  his  mo- 
tives, as  well  as 
the  exalted  sanc- 
tity of  his  char- 
acter, have  been 
freely  acknowl- 
edged by  Protes- 
tants in  all  parts 
of  the  world. 
His  success  as  a 
missionary  has 
also  been  conceded  very  generally;  and  it  has  been  by  far 
too  common  to  hear  Protestant  missionaries  chided  because 
190 


FRANCIS  XAVIER. 


FRANCIS  XA  VIER.  191 

they  do  not  cultivate  his  spirit,  imitate  his  methods,  or 
achieve  a  success  at  all  commensurate  with  his.  It  is  an  un- 
grateful task  at  any  time  to  correct  impressions  which  have 
been  almost  unchallenged  for  centuries;  and  especially  so 
when  the  subject  of  criticism  has  taken  rank  among  the  great 
and  good  men  of  the  earth.  Justice  to  the  cause  of  truth, 
however,  and  especially  justice  to  the  great  cause  of  modern 
missions,  call  for  a  frank  statement  of  the  character  of  the 
work  accomplished  by  St.  Xavier,  and  a  candid  inquiry  into 
its  results.  Was  he,  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  word,  a  suc- 
cessful missionary  ?  Does  his  fruit  abide,  in  any  good  sense, 
to  the  present  day  ?  A  brief  review  of  his  life  will  perhaps 
shed  some  light  upon  these  questions. 

Francis  Xavier  was  born  at  the  Castle  of  Navarre,  April 
7,  1506.  He  was  related  on  his  mother's  side  to  the  royal 
family  of  Navarre,  and  to  the  house  of  Bourbon.  In  his 
early  youth  he  was  for  a  time  brought  to  some  extent  under 
the  influence  of  Protestant  teaching,  but  in  one  of  his  letters 
he  gratefully  acknowledges  the  influence  of  Ignatius  Loyola 
in  extricating  him  from  what  he  considered  the  dangerous 
toils  of  a  great  heresy.  He  became  wholly  devoted  to  Loyola, 
and  was  one  of  the  little  company  who  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  Order  of  Jesuits.  It  is  not  generally  known  that  this 
famous  order  took  its  first  beginning  from  a  compact  formed 
by  seven  young  men  to  devote  themselves  to  the  work  of  con- 
verting the  heathen  world  to  Christianity.  Had  they  been 
able  to  follow  out  their  first  intention  of  going  immediately 
into  foreign  lands,  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  world  would 
have  heard  less  of  Jesuits,  and  Europe  have  escaped  from 
their  malign  influence.  It  so  happened,  however,  that  only 
a  few  of  the  seven  were  sent  abroad,  and  those  who  remained 
in  Europe  began  at  once  to  devote  themselves  ostensibly  to 
the  great  work  of  withstanding  the  rising  power  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, but  in  reality  of  building  up  their  own  order,  and 
extending  its  influence  until  it  became  almost  superior  to  the 
power  of  the  Papacy  itself.  It  fell  to  the  lot  of  Xavier  to  go 


192  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

abroad.  Portugal  was  at  that  time  the  leading  power  east  of 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  It  was  the  golden  age  of  Portu- 
guese history.  The  discovery  of  the  passage  around  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  had  almost  equaled  the  achievement  of  Colum- 
bus in  discovering  America,  and  had  in  reality  opened  a  way 
to  a  region  vastly  richer  than  anything  that  was  discovered 
in  the  Western  world.  John  III,  the  King  of  Portugal,  be- 
came warmly  interested  in  the  scheme  of  the  young  men,  and 
in  a  short  time  fell  so  completely  under  their  influence  that 
he  was  prepared  to  do  anything  in  his  power  to  further  their 
purposes.  The  Pope  had  given  him  a  title  to  all  the  world 
east  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  but  his  knowledge  of  ge- 
ography was  so  imperfect  that  he  included  in  his  grant 
Ethiopia,  Arabia,  Persia  and  China,  together  with  India  and 
the  islands  of  the  archipelago. 

After  numerous  delays,  such  as  were  almost  inevitable  in 
those  days  of  imperfect  navigation,  Xavier  was  at  last  per- 
mitted to  set  sail.  The  Viceroy  of  Goa,  who  accompanied 
the  fleet  in  which  he  had  arranged  to  sail,  not  only  gave  him 
quarters  on  his  own  ship,  but  insisted  that  while  on  board  he 
should  be  his  guest.  Certainly  no  young  missionary  ever  set 
out  for  his  distant  field  under  circumstances  so  propitious  as 
those  which  surrounded  Xavier.  He  was  going  out  to  India 
as  guest  of  the  Viceroy  of  the  most  powerful  king  at  that 
time  known  in  the  Eastern  world.  He  had  also  been  ap- 
pointed Papal  Nuncio,  with  "all  the  powers  which  the  Church 
of  Rome  could  give  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith."  He 
carried  a  letter  from  the  King  of  Portugal  to  David,  King 
of  Ethiopia,  the  hazy  ideas  of  geography  of  the  former  king 
having  apparently  led  him  to  suppose  that  the  missionary 
could  stop  on  his  way  to  India,  and  see  the  Ethiopian  mon- 
arch. In  addition  to  this,  he  was  provided  with  another 
general  letter  to  all  princes  and  governors  between  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  and  the  River  Ganges.  King  John  also  gave 
a  general  order  to  all  his  officers  in  the  East  to  supply  the 
wants,  not  only  of  Xavier  himself,  but  of  the  missionary 


FRANCIS  XA  VIER.  1 93 

party  which  accompanied  him.  To  crown  all,  the  king  gave 
him  his  own  royal  authority  to  be  used  at  his  discretion  in 
his  work.  In  short,  nothing  seemed  to  be  wanting  which, 
from  a  worldly  point  of  view,  could  have  contributed  to  his 
success.  Authority,  money,  distinguished  birth,  personal 
sanctity,  fame,  both  ecclesiastical  and  worldly,  and  the  active 
support  of  every  civil  and  military  officer  of  the  King  of 
Portugal,  all  were  his  in  full  measure.  What  more  any 
human  being  could  ask  when  about  to  enter  upon  an  arduous 
undertaking,  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine. 

Xavier  arrived  at  Goa,  in  Western  India,  May  6,  1543. 
He  was  then  thirty-six  years  of  age,  a  man  of  finished  cul- 
ture, of  intense  ardor  in  the  pursuit  of  every  object  which 
he  set  before  him,  of  great  force  of  character,  and  unflinch- 
ing courage  in  the  face  of  all  manner  of  danger  and  perse- 
cution. At  this  point  we  turn  to  the  pages  of  his  biogra- 
phers for  information  concerning  the  character  of  his  work, 
and  the  measure  of  success  achieved,  but  are  soon  baffled  by 
seeming  contradictions  and  at  times  manifest  exaggerations. 
It  does  not  often  happen  that  a  perfectly  impartial  history  of 
any  man  is  written ;  but  if  we  desire  to  ascertain  the  exact 
truth,  we  can  not  be  very  far  amiss  if  we  let  the  subject  of 
the  biography  tell  his  own  story.  This  has  been  done  by 
Rev.  Henry  Venn,  in  his  "  Life  of  Francis  Xavier."  With 
great  care  he  collected  the  letters  written  by  the  great  mis- 
sionary from  different  points  in  the  East,  and  thus  was  able 
in  1862  to  give  the  world  a  connected  story,  not  always  com- 
plete, it  is  true,  but  at  the  same  time  faithful  to  the  actual 
facts,  especially  in  all  their  main  features. 

On  his  way  to  India  the  fleet  in  which  Xavier  sailed 
touched  at  the  island  of  Socotra,  in  the  Arabian  Sea.  The 
people  of  the  island  were  partly  Christian  and  partly 
Mohammedan.  Soon  after  his  arrival,  Xavier  was  walking 
on  a  public  road  when  he  chanced  to  see  two  children,  whom 
he  at  once  laid  hands  on  and  was  about  to  baptize ;  but  the 
little  ones  fled  for  protection  to  their  mother,  who  was  near 

13 


194  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

by,  and  she  complained  to  the  governor  that  her  children 
were  about  to  be  baptized  by  force.  Strangely  enough,  the 
nominal  Christians  of  the  island  objected  on  the  ground  that 
they  did  not  wish  such  despised  people  as  their  Mohammedan 
neighbors  to  become  Christians.  Here  a  peculiarity  of  the 
Catholic  faith  of  that  day,  and  in  most  mission-fields  of  the 
present  day  also,  became  apparent.  Xavier  was  anxious 
throughout  his  whole  life  to  baptize  as  many  children  as 
possible;  and  when  we  read  of  his  success  in  making  converts, 
we  must  always  remember  that  the  infants  baptized  by  him 
were  included  in  the  general  list  of  converts  reported  from 
time  to  time.  With  regard  to  these  infants  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  remark,  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  them  died 
almost  immediately  after  baptism,  from  which  it  may  be  in- 
ferred that  the  parents  consented  to  the  rite  at  the  last 
moment,  in  the  hope  that  the  lives  of  their  children  might  be 
thereby  prolonged.  The  Catholic  saints  of  those  days,  how- 
ever, put  another  interpretation  upon  the  event.  According 
to  their  view,  God  miraculously  preserved  the  little  ones 
from  death  until  the  rite  of  baptism  could  be  administered, 
and  then,  when  their  eternal  salvation  had  been  secured,  they 
were  permitted  to  die. 

Xavier's  first  duty  on  his  arrival  at  Goa  was  to  take  up 
vigorously  the  work  of  reform  among  the  Portuguese  Chris- 
tians. At  every  point  where  he  found  the  Portuguese  settled 
throughout  the  East,  his  eyes  were  greeted  by  a  spectacle  of 
appalling  vice  and  profligacy.  While  a  great  ado  was  made 
'about  religion,  'imposing  churches  and  cathedrals  erected, 
and  the  outward  forms  of  Roman  Catholic  worship  duly  ob- 
served, the  mass  of  the  people  had  abandoned  themselves  to 
every  form  of  riotous  living,  and  the  very  name  of  Christ 
had  been  profaned  among  the  heathen  far  and  near  by  the 
ungodly  lives  of  those  called  Christians.  To  the  honor  of 
the  young  missionary  it  may  be  said  that  he  never  shrank 
from  rebuking  sin  in.  high  places  or  in  low  when  it  dared  to 
confront  him.  He  at  once  adopted  a  custom,  which  he  main- 


FRANCIS  XAVIER.  195 

tamed  in  other  places  throughout  the  rest  of  his  life,  of 
either  in  person  taking  a  bell,  or  hiring  a  bellman  for  the 
purpose,  and  going  through  the  streets,  often  attended  by  a 
large  crowd,  he  called  upon  the  people  to  come  out  to  his 
meetings,  attend  the  confessional,  pray  for  souls  in  purgatory, 
and,  in  short,  take  up  their  religious  duties  in  earuest.  It  can 
not  be  doubted  that  he  effected  much  good  by  his  peremptory 
style  of  preaching,  enforced  as  he  was  able  to  do  it  by  the 
arm  of  secular  authority.  After  a  year  or  more  spent  in 
this  kind  of  work,  he  went,  by  the  advice  of  the  Viceroy,  to 
the  pearl-fisheries  at  the  extreme  southern  point  of  India, 
where  he  found  a  large  number  of  native  Christians.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  Xavier  was  not  by  any  means  the 
pioneer  missionary  of  the  Roman  Catholics  in  India.  He 
found  large  numbers  of  Christians  at  nearly  every  place 
which  he  visited.  The  various  orders  of  priests,  chiefly 
Franciscans  and  Augustinians,  had  been  at  work  for  some 
years,  and  through  their  efforts  many  thousands  had  already 
made  a  nominal  profession  of  Christianity.  The  Portuguese 
rulers  did  not  scruple  for  a  moment  in  using  both  rewards 
and  punishments  to  influence  the  natives  in  favor  of  accepting 
the  gospel,  in  the  imperfect  form  in  which  it  was  presented 
by  these  priests.  Shortly  after  the  people  engaged  in  the 
pearl-fisheries  off  the  coast  of  Ceylon,  and  along  the  shore  of 
the  main-laud,  had  embraced  Christianity,  they  were  attacked 
by  a  fleet  of  Mohammedans,  the  descendants,  of  whom  are 
known  as  Moormen  in  Ceylon  to  the  present  day.  The 
Christians  were  quickly  subdued,  and  reduced  to  a  state  of 
virtual  slavery.  The  Viceroy  of  Goa,  however,  interfered 
in  their  behalf,  sent  a  fleet  which  completely  destroyed  the 
Mohammedans,  and  not  only  were  the  Christians  restored  to 
their  former  rights,  but  many  of  the  captured  boats  were 
presented  to  them,  and  a  monopoly  of  the  pearl-fishery  was 
formally  granted  them.  Xavier  was  sent  among  these  peo- 
ple, and  although  he  was  better  adapted  to  another  style  of 
work,  yet  he  at  once  entered  upon  his  labors  with  all  his 


196  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

energy.  The  manner  of  working  which  he  adopted  here  he 
seems  to  have  maintained  wherever  he  went  during  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life.  He  did  not  master  any  Eastern  tongue, 
not  even  sufficiently  to  preach  imperfectly  in  it;  but  after 
some  lessons  in  pronunciation  and  a  slight  acquaintance  with 
the  construction  of  the  language,  with  the  aid  of  native 
scholars,  he  prepared  a  few  lessons,  including  the  Creed,  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Ave  Maria,  and, 
collecting  the  people,  he  read  these  over,  and  had  them  re- 
peat them  after  him  word  for  word.  Large  numbers  of  boys 
would  quickly  memorize  the  lessons,  and  through  these  he 
succeeded  in  teaching  this  very  rudimentary  body  of  doc- 
trine to  the  majority  of  his  adherents.  Beyond  this  he  does 
not  seem  to  have  gone;  and  when  we  remember  that  his 
knowledge  of  the  various  languages  in  which  he  labored  \vas 
extremely  imperfect,  we  can  well  believe  that  his  followers 
understood  but  little  of  what  he  taught.  He  had  success 
among  the  fishermen,  but  not  so  great  as  has  been  repre- 
sented by  most  of  his  biographers.  So  nearly  as  can  be 
gathered  from  his  letters,  the  people  of  thirty  villages  became 
Christians  and  were  baptized.  An  oft-quoted  paragraph  in 
one  of  his  letters  has  given  the  impression  that  he  baptized 
great  multitudes,  until  at  last  his  arm  grew  weary  with  the 
work;  but  this  seems  inconsistent  with  other  statements 
found  in  letters  written  subsequent  to  this  time,  and  jt  seems 
probable  that  the  paragraph  was  inserted  in  the  body  of  a 
letter  by  a  copyist,  and  was  never  written  by  the  saint  himself. 
At  the  end  of  a  year  Xavier  had  become  discouraged,  and 
began  to  think  of  forsaking  India  and  trying  Ethiopia.  The 
character  of  the  work  and  its  extent  were  alike  unsatisfactory 
to  him.  He  seems  to  have  had  but  vague  ideas  concerning 
Ethiopia,  and  throughout  his  life  was  frequently  subject  to 
fancies  in  favor  of  distant  fields,  such  as  Ethiopia  must  have 
presented  to  his  vision  at  that  time.  Not  finding  his  way 
open  in  that  direction,  he  next  became  possessed  with  the 
idea  o£  converting  native  "  kings,"  and  the  word  "  king " 


FRANC 'IS  XA  VIER,  1 97 

seems  to  have  had  a  charm  for  him  throughout  the  rest  of 
his  life.  His  theory  was  that  if  he  could  bring  one  of  the 
native  princes  over  to  Christianity,  the  prince  would  use  not 
only  his  influence,  but  his  authority,  to  induce  his  people  to 
follow  him,  and  Xavier  never  seems  to  have  doubted  the 
rightfulness  of  kings  using  their  regal  authority  for  such  a 
purpose.  While  pondering  this  new  line  of  policy,  he  found 
a  very  tempting  opening  in  an  island  off  the  coast  of  Ceylon, 
called  Jaffnapatam,  and  also  on  the  opposite  coast.  Two 
brothers  were  rival  claimants  for  the  same  throne,  and  were 
engaged  in  war,  as  frequently  happens  in  the  Oriental  world. 
One  had  been  worsted,  and  driven  out  of  the  little  kingdom. 
Xavier  made  advances  to  this  prince,  and  proposed  to  se- 
cure the  assistance  of  the  Viceroy  to  expel  the  brother  and 
put  the  fugitive  upon  the  throne,  in  return  for  which  the 
prince  promised  to  become  a  Christian,  and  easily  persuaded 
Xavier  that  he  could  induce  his  subjects  to  do  likewise.  The 
Portuguese  Viceroy,  however,  while  not  opposing  the 
scheme,  was  apathetic,  and  Xavier  did  not  hesitate  to  secure 
his  removal  by  making  complaint  directly  to  the  King  of 
Portugal.  This  illustrates  the  extraordinary  power  which 
he  possessed — a  power  which  made  him  wholly  unlike  any 
missionary  of  the  present  day  in  any  part  of  the  world.  Ar- 
rangements were  made  at  last  for  a  military  expedition  to  put 
the  exile  upon  the  throne  of  the  kingdom  ;  but  unexpected 
difficulties  arose,  and  the  expedition  was  abandoned.  Xavier 
was  not  only  disappointed,  but  utterly  disgusted,  and  at  once 
resolved  to  leave  India. 

In  1545  he  sailed  for  the  Spice  Islands.  He  had  heard 
glowing  reports  of  the  willingness  of  the  people  in  those  dis- 
tant islands  to  become  Christians.  He  knew  very  little 
about  the  islands  or  the  people;  but  in  those  days  there 
seems  to  have  been  a  peculiar  fascination  in  the  public  mind 
in  connection  with  that  far-off  region.  The  islands  were 
supposed  to  be  gems  of  beauty  and  filled  with  treasure.  The 
imagination  of  Xavier  took  fire  at  the  prospect,  and  he 


198  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

thought  he  saw  before  him  new  and  wider  doors  than  he 
could  find  elsewhere.  On  his  way  he  stopped  at  Malacca, 
and,  wishing  to  proceed  at  once  to  Macassar,  he  calmly  asked 
the  Viceroy  of  Malacca  to  fit  out  a  ship  for  him,  and  place 
it  at  his  disposal  for  the  voyage.  Here  again  we  see  how 
little  like  a  modern  missionary  this  great  man  of  authority 
was.  The  missionary  of  to-day  may  be  seen  flitting  about 
among  shipping  offices  trying  to  obtain  a  passage  at  a  re- 
duced rate,  or  perhaps  taking  a  second-class  passage,  or  even 
putting  himself  among  the  poor  emigrants  in  the  steerage ; 
but  never,  since  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  at  least, 
has  any  missionary  been  known  to  ask  an  earthly  ruler  to 
fit  out  a  special  ship  for  his  convenience.  The  Viceroy  did 
not  refuse,  but  skillfully  found  an  excuse  which  justified 
postponement.  Other  missionaries  had  already  been  in  the 
islands,  and  one  man  of  note  had  but  a  short  time  before 
been  sent  to  Macassar,  and  the  Viceroy  politely  suggested 
that  it  would  be  in  better  taste  to  wait  until  this  brother 
should  be  heard  from  before  proceeding  to  take  up  work  to 
which  he  had  already  gone.  Xavier  consented  to  wait,  and 
in  the  meantime  began  among  the  people  at  Malacca  the  same 
kind  of  work  which  he  had  so  faithfully  performed  at  Goa. 
Malacca  was  at  that  time  a  brilliant  capital,  and  here  flagrant 
vice  was  as  unblushing  and  defiant  as  in  the  other  Portuguese 
settlements.  The  good  man  had  recourse  to  his  bell  and  to 
a  troop  of  boys,  who  accompanied  him  in  the  street,  and  at 
once  began  to  summon  the  people  to  repair  to  the  churches 
and  engage  in  prayer  for  the  souls  of  their  friends  in  purga- 
tory, and  in  reporting  the  proceeding  he  quaintly  remarked 
that  this  proclamation  produced  an  immense  impression  on 
the  city.  It  does  not  seem,  however,  that  anything  like  2 
spiritual  reformation  was  accomplished  here  or  elsewhere. 

Finding  an  opportunity  to  proceed  to  some  of  the  other 
islands,  Xavier  determined  to  omit  Macassar  from  his  plan 
for  the  present,  and  proceeded  to  Amboyna,  where  he  spent 
three  months.  He  afterward  visited  the  Moluccas  and  other 


FRANCIS  XA  VIER.  199 

islands,  including  Macassar.  Wherever  he  went  he  found 
converts,  and  he  does  not  seem  to  have  had  much  success 
except  in  the  work  of  baptizing  infants.  He  did  much  good, 
however,  among  the  Portuguese,  and  especially  among  the 
sailors  of  a  fleet  which  visited  one  of  the  islands  during  his 
stay.  In  one  of  the  Moluccas  a  princess  was  baptized  by 
him,  and  he  does  not  omit  to  mention,  in  speaking  of  the  fact, 
that  he  recommended  her  at  once  to  the  King  of  Portugal  for 
a  pension.  He  secured  a  similar  provision  for  a  nobleman 
in  one  of  the  islands,  and  tried  hard  to  win  a  Mohammedan 
prince,  who  gave  him  much  encouragement  for  a  time,  but 
finally  refused  to  become  a  Christian.  He  remained  about  a 
year  among  the  islands,  and  then  returned  to  India,  where  he 
remained  fifteen  months,  reorganizing  the  work  which  he  had 
commenced  during  his  previous  visit.  This  work  seems  to 
have  been  in  large  part  that  of  perfecting  the  organization  of 
the  Jesuit  order.  Wherever  he  went  he  seems  to  have  had 
no  scruple  whatever  in  trying  to  get  possession  of  the  various 
institutions  founded  by  the  Franciscans,  Augustinians,  and 
other  orders,  and,  as  might  naturally  be  supposed,  he  en- 
countered no  little  opposition  from  time  to  time  in  carrying 
out  such  purposes.  He  succeeded,  however,  wherever  he 
went.  As  royal  commissioner,  he  held  all  civilians  in  the 
hollow  of  his  hands.  It  was  a  dangerous  power  for  any  ec- 
clesiastic to  possess,  and  in  his  hands  it  was  often  badly 
used. 

It  was  impossible  for  such  a  man  to  remain  very  long 
amid  the  scenes  oi  his  former  labors  in  India,  and  hence  we 
are  not  surprised  to  find  him,  on  the  25th  of  April,  1549,  sail- 
ing for  Japan.  He  had  heard  of  certain  islands  to  the  east- 
ward oi  Asia  while  in  the  Spice  Islands,  and  at  once  became 
wholly  absorbed  in  a  scheme  for  winning  the  people  of  these 
unknown  islands  to  the  Christian  faith.  He  received  abundant 
encouragement,,  and  after  leaving  India  proceeded  to  Malacca 
to  complete  his  arrangements.  Here  again  we  find  him, 
while  busy  in  the  work  of  preparation,  assuming  a  character 


200  L\DIA  AND  MALA  YS/A. 

which  reminds  us  least  of  all  of  a  missionary  of  Christ.  He 
was  supported  by  the  Viceroy  of  Malacca  to 'the  utmost  of 
his  power.  He  was  provided  with  costly  presents  for  the 
Emperor  of  Japan,  and  his  expedition  was  more  like  that  of 
a  great  ambassador  of  an  earthly  king  than  a  simple  mes- 
senger of  Jesus  Christ.  He  had  found  among  the  islands  a 
native  Japanese,  a  man  of  influence  in  his  native  city,  who 
had  already  become  a  Christian.  This  man  he  further  in- 
structed, and  took  with  him  to  Japan.  He  arrived  in  the 
city  of  Cangoxima  on  the  15th  of  August.  This  city  seems 
to  have  been  the  port  of  the  city  of  Kewsew,  and  belonged 
to  the  southern  island  of  the  Japanese  group.  He  soon 
found  it  would  be  impracticable  to  see  the  Emperor,  but  de- 
termined to  attempt  the  next  best  thing,  and  obtained  inter- 
views with  local  "  kings."  These  so-called  kings  were 
probably  rajas,  or  native  princes,  some  of  them  perhaps  pos- 
sessing considerable  power,  but  all  of  them  ruling  over  petty 
states.  The  Japanese  convert  who  accompanied  him  had  ob- 
tained a  beautiful  picture  of  Mary  and  the  Babe,  which  he 
showed  to  the  governor  of  the  province  to  which  he  belonged. 
It  is  said  that  the  governor  was  so  impressed  with  the  beauty 
of  the  picture  that,  falling  upon  his  knees,  he  immediately 
began  to  worship  it,  and  commanded  all  present  to  do  the 
same.  The  mother  of  the  governor  was  equally  impressed, 
and  at  once  requested  that  she  might  be  instructed  in  the  chief 
articles  of  the  Christian  religion.  This  seems  to  have  been  the 
singular  means  of  first  opening  their  way  among  the  people, 
and  after  a  short  time  they  began  to  receive  converts.  In 
one  kingdom  one  hundred  persons  were  baptized,  and  from 
this  time  forward  we  read  of  frequent  converts  in  connection 
with  the  labors  of  Xavier  and  his  associates.  His  work  in 
Japan  was  undoubtedly,  the  most  interesting  and  most  worthy 
of  such  a  man,  of  any  part  of  his  Eastern  labors.  He  devoted 
some  time  to  getting  acquainted  with  the  people,  seems  to 
have  been  impressed  by  their  character,  and  to  have  been 
compelled  to  yield  them  a  certain  measure  of  respect,  which 


FRANCIS  XA  VIER.  201 

seems  to  have  been  absent  in  his  dealings  with  all  the  other 
Oriental  people  with  whom  he  was  associated. 

Space  will  not  permit  anything  like  a  full  history  of  his 
stay  in  Japan.  He  at  times  encountered  opposition,  and  here, 
as  everywhere  he  went,  was  familiar  with  privation  and  suffer- 
ing ;  for  he  was  an  ascetic  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word, 
and  courted  rather  than  shrank  from  bodily  discomfort  and 
pain;  but  the  same  restlessness  which  had  characterized  him 
everywhere  else  soon  began  to  appear  again  in  the  midst  of  his 
success  in  Japan.  He  naturally  heard  much  of  China  from 
the  Japanese,  and  his  vivid  imagination  quickly  began  to  pic- 
ture greater  victories  among  the  uncounted  millions  of  that 
great  empire  than  any  that  the  world  had  ever  before  seen. 
He  could  not  immediately  proceed,  but  determined  to  return 
to  India,  and  make  preparations  for  his  visit  to  China,  which 
should  transcend  all  he  had  attempted,  or  even  dreamed  of,  in 
reference  to  his  mission  to  Japan.  He  had  spent  a  little 
more  than  three  years  in  Japan,  during  which  his  success 
had,  in  some  respects,  been  marked ;  and  he  left  many  Chris- 
tians behind  him  when  he  sailed.  The  tragical  fate  of  these 
Christians  is  but  too  well  known  to  the  Christian  world. 
Xavier,  from  the  first,  courted  the  friendship  and  support  of 
the  rulers  of  this  world.  He  pursued  this  policy  everywhere. 
He  taught  his  associates  to  avail  themselves  of  the  support  of 
the  secular  power  wherever  they  could,  and,  by  example  if 
not  precept,  instilled  in  their  minds  the  policy  of  meddling 
in  political  affairs  wherever  they  could  in  any  way  profit  by 
doing  so.  He  thus  sowed  to  the  wind;  and  when,  ninety 
years  later,  the  Japanese  rulers  became  exasperated  with  the 
meddlesome  leaders  of  the  Roman  Catholic  party,  and  exter- 
minated the  whole  body  of  Christians  by  a  cruel  massacre, 
the  harvest  of  whirlwind  was  reaped  of  which  Xavier  had 
unwittingly  scattered  the  seed. 

After  his  return  from  Japan,  Xavier  lost  no  time  in  pre- 
paring for  what  he  hoped  would  prove  the  crowning  enter- 
prise of  his  life.  He  affirmed  that  God  had  distinctly  and 


202  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

clearly  called  him  to  undertake  a  mission  to  China,  and  re- 
paired to  Malacca  for  the  purpose  of  making  suitable  prepa- 
rations for  so  great  an  undertaking.  Here,  however,  he 
encountered  an  unexpected  obstacle  in  the  hostility  of  the 
Portuguese  Viceroy,  who  absolutely  refused  to  give  him  any  as- 
sistance, or  even  to  permit  him  to  proceed  in  the  semi-official 
character  which  he  had  assumed.  Xavier  was  greatly  exas- 
perated by  this  unexpected  opposition,  and  did  not  hesitate 
to  threaten  the  Viceroy  with  excommunication.  He  pro- 
duced his  authority  from  the  Pope  as  apostolic  legate,  and 
carefully  took  measures  to  see  that  the  excommunication 
should  be  publicly  announced.  This,  however,  does  not  seem 
to  have  produced  any  effect,  and  he  was  obliged  to  sail  in  a 
private  vessel,  with  but  slender  resources,  and  with  no  assur- 
ance that  he  would  gain  admission  to  China  on  his  arrival  in 
that  empire.  His  temper  seems  to  have  utterly  given  way  at 
this  crisis;  and  no  part  of  his  life  in  the  East  reflects  so  little 
credit  upon  his  Christian  character  as  the  bitter  resentment  in 
which  he  allowed  himself  to  indulge  against  the  hostile  Vice- 
roy. He  was  in  too  great  haste,  however,  to  await  the  issue 
of  an  appeal  to  the  King  of  Portugal,  but  determined  to  go 
forward  at  once,  and  in  due  time  arrived  at  the  small  island 
of  Sanchiau,  near  the  city  of  Canton.  Here  he  was  pros- 
trated by  a  severe  fever,  from  which,  however,  he  partially 
recovered  in  a  short  time,  and  resumed  his  work.  He  built 
a  small  hut  upon  the  shore,  and  daily  celebrated  divine  serv- 
ice as  long  as  he  was  able  to  do  so.  A  number  of  Portuguese 
merchants,  with  their  attendants,  were  temporarily  stopping 
at  the  island,  and  he  found  abundant  work  in  ministering  to 
their  wants.  He  sought  for  an  interpreter  to  accompany  him 
into  China,  and  was  busy  night  and  day  until  overtaken 
again  by  the  fever  in  a  more  severe  form.  He  died  Decem- 
ber 2,  1552,  alone,  among  strangers.  Mr.  Venn  says:  "No 
companion  was  near,  to  whom  he  could  breathe  out  his  dying 
thoughts ;  no  priest  gave  him  the  last  offices  of  the  Church, 
or  committed  his  body  to  a  Christian  grave." 


FRANCIS  XA  VIER,  203 

Some  Portuguese  merchants  found  him  just  a  short  time 
before  he  breathed  his  last;  and  from  these  strangers  he  re- 
ceived a  burial,  with  such  attendant  honors  as  they  were  able 
to  confer.  His  body  was  placed  in  a  box  partly  filled  with 
unslaked  lime,  and  when  disinterred  by  a  Jesuit  brother 
some  mouths  later,  it  was  found  not  to  have  become  decom- 
posed. It  was  carried  first  to  Malacca,  and  interred  in  the 
cemetery  there;  but  a  year  or  two  later  was  removed  to  Goa, 
where  it  has  been  regarded  as  a  sacred  relic  ever  since.  It 
has  been  taken  out  for  public  exposition  from  time  to  time, 
on  which  occasions  vast  multitudes  of  Roman  Catholics  flock 
to  the  ancient  Portuguese  capital,  and  not  only  gaze  rever- 
entially upon  the  shriveled  corpse,  but  devoutly  kiss  the  feet, 
exposed  for  the  purpose,  and  indulge  in  such  idolatrous  prac- 
tices as  are  common  among  Roman  Catholics  of  the  more 
superstitious  class.  One  of  these  expositions  took  place  only 
a  few  months  ago.  A  friend  Avho  was  present  writes  as  fol- 
lows: "The  whole  church  compound  was  laid  out  with 
booths  arranged  in  rows  intersecting  each  other  at  right 
angles.  These  included  gambling-booths,  a  Hindu  theater, 
eating-houses,  beer,  wine,  and  liquor  shops.  Everything  was 
in  full  blast,  although  it  was  Christmas-day.  In  the  center 
of  the  church  was  a  raised  platform  about  three  feet  high,  on 
which  was  a  glass  case  containing  the  body,  which  looked 
about  the  size  of  a  child  of  ten.  Many,  as  they  passed  the 
feet,  which  were  not  covered,  kissed  them."*  The  body  is 
shriveled  and  dried,  and  is  probably  very  much  like  one  of 
the  blackened,  shrunken  bodies  which  tourists  so  often  see  in 
the  crypts  of  the  churches  of  Southern  Europe.  One  arm  of 
the  corpse  was  cut  off  many  years  ago,  by  order  of  one  of  the 
Popes,  and  parts  of  it  distributed  in  various  parts  of  the 
world.  The  public  exposition  of  the  body  is  shocking,  if  not 
really  disgraceful ;  and  the  Times  of  India  expressed  a  com-, 
mon  feeling  when  it  said,  in  a  recent  issue,  "  It  is  time  for 
that  ghastly  performance  to  cease." 

*Rev.  A.  W.  Prautch. 


204  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

More  than  three  centuries  have  passed  since  Xavier  died, 
and  the  world  has  had  ample  time  to  study  his  work  and  ex- 
amine its  results.  With  all  his  devotion,  his  missionary 
policy  was  of  the  earth  earthy,  and  as  he  identified  it  every- 
where with  the  Portuguese  civil  power,  his  work  decayed  and 
disappeared  precisely  as  the  Portuguese  power  with  which  it  was 
interwoven  disappeared  from  most  parts  of  the  Eastern  world. 
We  may  search  to-day  carefully  in  every  place  where  the  great 
pioneer  Jesuit  labored,  without  finding  one  vital  spark  of  spirit- 
ual life  to  testify  to  the  abiding  character  of  his  ministry. 
Indeed,  before  his  death  Xavier  himself  regarded  his  work  as 
a  practical  failure.  Writing  to  a  brother  missionary  he  says : 
"  If  you  will,  in  imagination,  search  through  India,  you  will 
find  that  few  will  reach  heaven,  either  of  whites  or  blacks, 
except  those  who  depart  this  life  under  fourteen  years  of  age, 
with  their  baptismal  innocence  still  upon  them."  In  another 
letter  he  says  that  the  natives  abhor  the  Christian  religion,  and 
to  "ask  them  to  become  Christians  is  like  asking  them  to 
submit  to  death ;  hence  all  our  labor  is  at  present  to  guard 
those  who  are  now  Christians.  .  .  .  Hence, -since  there 
is  not  the  least  need  of  my  labors  in  these  parts,  I  have 
determined  to  start  for  Japan  as  soon  as  possible."  He  also 
wrote  to  the  King  of  Portugal  proposing,  in  elaborate  terms, 
to  change  the  policy  of  the  work,  and  to  have  it  wholly 
committed  to  the  civil  power.  He  proposed  to  the  King  that 
all  his  servants,  from  the  Viceroy  down,  should  be  made  re- 
sponsible for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  and  that  those 
who  failed  to  show  good  returns  in  the  shape  of  numerous 
converts,  should  not  only  be  reprimanded,  but  actually  pun- 
ished for  neglect  of  duty.  He  thus  writes  to  the  King:  "I 
very  earnestly  desire  that  you  should  take  an  oath,  invoking 
most  solemnly  the  name  of  God,  that  in  case  any  governor 
thus  neglects  to  spread  the  faith,  he  shall,  on  his  return  to 
Portugal,  be  punished  by  close  imprisonment  for  many  years, 
and  all  his  goods  and  possessions  shall  be  sold  and  devoted  to 
works  of  charity  In  order  that  none  may  flatter  themselves 


FRANCIS  XA  VIER.  205 

tbat  this  is  but  an  idle  threat,  you  must  declare  as  plainly 
as  possible  that  you  will  accept  no  excuses  that  may  be 
offered ;  but  that  the  only  way  of  escaping  your  wrath 
and  obtaining  your  favor,  is  to  make  as  many  Christians  as 
possible  in  the  countries  over  which  they  rule.  ...  So 
long  as  the  Viceroys  and  governors  are  not  urged  by  the 
fear  of  disgrace  and  fine  to  make  many  Christians,  your 
Majesty  must  not  hope  that  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  will 
meet  with  great  success  in  India."  It  was  not  his  purpose 
to  release  the  ecclesiastics  from  all  responsibility,  but  he  dis- 
tinctly stated  that  their  part  of  the  work  was  to  be  sub- 
ordinate, and  the  main  responsibility  was  to  rest  upon  the 
civil  rulers,  without  whose  aid  he  believed  the  task  of  con- 
verting India  must  prove  a  complete  failure. 

The  fame  of  Francis  Xavier  rests  not  upon  his  success  as 
a  missionary — for  this  was  really  very  equivocal — but  upon 
his  reputation  as  a  saint,  and  especially  as  an  ascetic.  The 
Roman  Catholic  biographers  dwell  more  upon  his  asceticism, 
than  upon  any  other  part  of  his  character  or  of  his  work. 
His  high  social  rank,  his  great  talents,  his  imperious  will, 
his  tireless  labors,  and  his  unquestioned  devotion,  all  crowned 
as  they  were  by  the  pathetic  circumstances  under  which  he 
died,  have  from  the  first  given  him  a  rank  among  the  Roman 
Catholics  generally,  and  especially  in  the  powerful  order  of 
Jesuits,  which  has  not  been  correctly  interpreted  by  the 
Prostestant  world.  Xavier  was  a  great  man,  and,  according 
to  his  light,  a  good  man,  but  by  no  means  a  model  saint,  a 
meek  Christian,  or  a  successful  missionary. 


Cbapber  XV. 

\  .  *• 

WILLIAM    CAREY. 

THE  most  illustrious  name  in  the  annals  of  Protestant 
missions  is  beyond  doubt  that  of  William  Carey.  Other 
men  may  have  been  more  prominent  during  their  day,  or  more 
brilliant  in  some  particular  line  of  work  or  study,  but  William 
Carey  has  throughout  the  whole  of  the  present  century  been 
recognized  everywhere  as,  above  and  beyond  all  others,  the 
most  representative  man  to  be  found  in  the  great  missionary 
body  of  the  Protestant  Churches.  His  early  life,  his  entrance 
upon  the  Christian  ministry,  his  adoption  of  the  missionary 
calling,  and  his  career  in  the  foreign  field,  were  all  as  unlike 
as  possible  to  the  corresponding  stages  in  the  life  of  Francis 
Xavier.  He  was  the  son  of  a  weaver,  born  in  an  obscure 
English  village  named  Paulersbury,  on  the  17th  of  August, 
1761.  His  father  was  unable  to  do  anything  for  him,  and  at 
an  early  age  he  was  sent  into  the  fields  to  work,  and  in  all 
human  probability  would  have  spent  his  days  as  a  common 
field  laborer,  had  it  not  been  for  a  peculiar  weakness  in  his 
constitution  which  made  him  unable  to  endure  exposure  in 
the  open  air  of  the  raw  English  climate.  At  the  age  of  six- 
teen his  father  apprenticed  him  to  a  shoemaker,  and,  like 
Bunyan  before  him,  he  lived  to  make  his  humble  calling  il- 
lustrious, rather  than  to  bear  the  plebeian  taint  which,  in  the 
eyes  of  weak  persons,  is  supposed  to  attach  to  a  lowly  occupa- 
tion. He  worked  quietly  at  this  trade  for  twelve  years.  At 
the  age  of  eighteen  he  was  awakened,  and  in  due  time  ob- 
tained a  clear  religious  experience,  upon  which  foundation  he 
built  the  magnificent  Christian  character  which,  throughout 
the  rest  of  his  life-time,  made  him  a  prince  among  men.  Very 
206 


WILLIAM  CAREY. 


207 


soon  after  his  conversion  he  began  to  speak  in  quiet  meet- 
ings, and  at  once  attracted  attention,  not  only  by  his  earnest- 
ness, but  by  the  evidences  of  elevated  thought  which  were 
conspicuous  in  his  simple  discourses.  If  a  man  is  really  a 
preacher  called  of  God,  the  common  people  are  those  who 
will  be  the  first  to  make  the  discovery,  and  hence  it  was  not 
long  before  William  Carey  had  received  this  recognition  of 
his  heavenly  calling.  The  common  people  heard  him  gladly. 


WILLIAM  CAREY. 

When  twenty  years  of  age  he  was  led  into  two  steps 
which  were  to  bring  him  trouble  in  subsequent  years.  On 
the  death  of  his  master  he  attempted  to  take  up  and  carry  on 
the  business,  which  involved  an  amount  of  responsibility  to 
which  he  was  not  equal.  He  also  married  a  young  woman 
who  was  singularly  unfitted  for  the  position  which  she  was  to 
occupy.  She  seems  to  have  been  a  simple  peasant  girl,  prob- 


208  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

ably  fitted  well  enough  for  life  in  a  quiet  little  village  in 
England,  but  with  a  tendency  to  melancholy,  which  in  later 
life  developed  into  unmistakable  insanity.  Mr.  Carey  was 
thus  involved  in  serious  domestic  and  business  troubles  at 
the  very  threshold  of  his  public  life,  and,  although  the  dis- 
cipline may  have  produced  its  salutary  lessons,  yet  it  is  im- 
possible to  read  of  his  struggles  without  a  feeling  of  pity  that 
one  so  gifted  should  have  been  so  heavily  weighted  at  the 
beginning  of  his  race.  He,  however,  seems  to  have  main- 
tained a  brave  heart  under  all  circumstances  throughout  his 
entire  life.  He  set  manfully  to  work,  and  toiled  early  and 
late  to  meet  his  obligations,  while  at  the  same  time  not  neg- 
lecting such  opportunities  as  were  offered  him  for  direct 
Christian  work.  Over  his  humble  door  in  the  little  village 
of  Hackleton  he  put  up  the  sign  which  was  destined  to 
become  historical : 


SECOND-HAND  SHOES  BOUGHT  AND  SOLD. 


At  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  received  an  offer  from  a 
small  congregation  in  the  town  of  Moulton  to  serve  them 
as  preacher,  on  a  salary  of  fifteen  pounds  per  annum.  He 
gladly  accepted  the  offer,  and  for  a  time  was  able  to  increase 
his  income  to  the  amount  of  thirty-six  pounds  by  teaching. 
The  class,  however,  which  he  taught,  belonged  to  another, 
who  returned  again  to  his  place,  and  Mr.  Carey  was  obliged 
to  betake  himself  again  to  the  shoemaker's  bench  in  order  to 
provide  for  himself  and  family.  During  the  early  part  of  his 
ministry  in  Moulton  he  became  very  singularly  impressed 
with  the  missionary  idea.  It  came  to  him  like  a  new  dis- 
covery that  the  Christians  of  the  world  were  living  in  utter 
neglect  of  the  direct  and  very  plain  command  of  the  Saviour 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  all  nations.  He  saw  constantly 
before  his  mind  the  vast  nations  of  the  world  living  in 
absolute  spiritual  darkness,  while  scarcely  an  effort  was  made 
anywhere  to  give  them  the  gospel.  No  one  seemed  to  think 


WILLIAM  CAREY.  209 

of  such  a  thing.  No  one  seemed  to  be  aware  that  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  had  given  his  people,  as  his  solemn  farewell 
commandment,  a  commission  to  go  into  all  the  world  and  to 
tell  every  creature  of  the  Saviour  who  had  come  into  this 
world  to  save  the  human  race.  Thinking  and  praying  upon 
this  subject,  the  young  minister  became  more  and  more  im- 
pressed with  the  conviction  that  the  mighty  task  of  giving 
the  gospel  to  the  heathen  must  be  immediately  taken  in  hand ; 
and  it  needs  not  surprise  us  to  learn  that  before  long  he  felt  a 
distinct  conviction  that  he  himself  must  bear  an  important 
part  in  the  work.  He  was  too  consistent  then  and  ever  after, 
to  advocate  a  work  of  this  kind  in  which  he  was  not  willing 
himself  to  bear  a  share  of  the  responsibility.  But  in  those 
early  days,  and  especially  in  the  circle  in  which  he  was 
moving,  there  were  very  few  prepared  to  sympathize  with 
him  in  such  a  conviction.  England,  it  is  true,  had  been 
slowly  awaking  through  the  century  from  the  extraordinary 
spiritual  torpor  into  which  she  had  sunk,  and,  as  the  event 
proved,  when  once  the  project  was  clearly  put  before  the 
public  mind,  there  were  many  prepared  to  receive  it  favorably. 
Mr.  Carey,  however,  at  the  beginning,  was  an  obscure  man, 
living  in  an  obscure  part  of  the  country,  and  was  not  in  a 
position  to  appeal  to  the  better  class  of  the  Christian  public 
of  England,  and  hence  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  suffer  many  rebuffs 
and  discouragements  before  friends  began  to  rally  round  him 
and  offer  him  their  support.  It  was  in  the  year  1786  that 
he  received  the  rebuke  which  has  become  historic,  at  a  meet- 
ing of  Baptist  ministers  in  the  town  of  Northampton. 
When  he  ventured  to  rise  in  his  place  and  propose  that  the 
meeting  take  up  the  subject  of  the  evangelization  of  the 
heathen,  the  good  .man  who  occupied  the  chair  peremptorily 
requested  him  to  take  his  seat,  telling  him  that  the  project 
was  not  one  which  called  for  their  interference.  He  still, 
however,  persevered,  year  after  year,  and  slowly  added  to 
the  number  of  those  who  learned  to  believe  in  him  and  in 
his  missionary  project. 

14 


210  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

It  was  not,  however,  till  he  was  thirty-one  years  of  age 
that  he  succeeded  in  securing  the  definite  organization  of  a 
missionary  society.  This  great  event — the  organization  of 
the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  of  England — took  place  on 
the  second  of  October,  1792,  at  Kettering.  The  meeting  at 
which  the  organization  was  effected  was  humble  enough  in 
its  way,  and  no  one  present,  probably,  anticipated  how  vast 
and  far-reaching  its  results  were  destined  to  be.  It  was  to 
be  the  pioneer  of  other  similar  meetings,  and  this  first  so- 
ciety was  to  be  one  of  many  which  were  soon  to  take  up  the 
magnificent  idea  of  the  humble  shoemaker,  and  send  forth 
messengers  of  God  to  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  carry  out 
the  Saviour's  great  commission. 

Many  were  the  difficulties  and  delays  experienced  by  Mr. 
Carey  before  he  was  at  last  permitted  to  sail.  For  a  time 
his  wife  refused  to  accompany  him.  His  father  discouraged 
him  to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  as  did  many  others  of  his 
dearest  friends.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  he  would 
meet  with  public  favor  from  any  quarter,  while,  to  add  to 
his  difficulties,  the  East  India  Company,  which  then,  under 
the  crown,  ruled  India,  was  unwilling  to  admit  missionaries 
to  any  part  of  India  under  its  control  without  a  special 
license,  which  at  that  time  could  not  be  obtained.  At  one 
time  a  passage  had  been  secured ;  but  when  the  time  for  sail- 
ing arrived,  the  captain  of  the  vessel  refused  to  receive  the 
missionaries  as  passengers.  At  last,  however,  at  sunrise  on 
the  thirteenth  of  June,  1793,  Mr.  Carey,  with  his  family,  went 
on  board  the  Danish  Indiaman  "  Krou  Princessa  Maria,"  and, 
after  a  quiet  and  uneventful  passage,  reached  Calcutta  on  the 
eleventh  of  November. 

He  was  now  in  his  thirty-third  year.  He  was  accom- 
panied by  John  Thomas,  a  surgeon,  who  had  previously 
been  in  India,  and  who,  it  was  hoped,  would  not  only  prove 
of  service  to  Mr.  Carey,  but  himself  make  a  successful  mis- 
sionary. Unfortunately,  however,  this  hope  was  not  realized. 
While  at  heart  a  good  man,  and  zealous  in  his  Master's 


WILLIAM  CARE  Y.  211 

work,  he  lacked  certain  qualifications,  without  which  no  mis- 
sionary can  be  permanently  successful,  and  Mr.  Carey  was 
hindered  much  more  than  helped  by  his  unwise  colleague. 
His  position  on  arrival  in  Calcutta  was  a  very  trying  one. 
He  was  a  pioneer  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  He  was  the 
first  ordained  English  missionary  who  had  appeared  in  India, 
and  in  all  Bengal  and  North  India  he  was  the  first  mission- 
ary of  any  kind  who  had  actually  been  sent  out  in  that  char- 
acter. The  Government  of  the  day  would  not  have  welcomed 
him ;  but,  as  his  biographer  remarks,  he  seemed  so  much  like 
an  "  obscure  vagrant"  that  no  one  cared  to  disturb  him.  He 
was  almost  penniless,  and  soon  found  himself  embarrassed  by 
the  debts  of  his  colleague.  In  this  emergency  he  determined 
to  retire  to  a  quiet  place  among  the  jungles  of  the  great  forest 
called  the  Sunderbuns,  about  fifty  miles  east  of  Calcutta,  and 
take  up  his  abode  in  the  simplest  possible  style  among  the 
village  people.  Here,  with  his  family,  he  remained  some 
little  time,  and,  as  the  presence  of  an  Englishman  afforded  a 
measure  of  protection,  a  large  number  of  simple  natives 
flocked  to  the  spot,  and  erected  huts  around  the  mission-house. 
The  next  year,  however,  he  received  an  offer  to  take  charge 
of  an  indigo  factory  in  the  province  of  Malda,  north  of  Cal- 
cutta ;  and  as  it  was  a  cardinal  point  in  the  policy  which  he 
had  adopted  to  make  his  work  self-supporting,  he  accepted 
this  offer  as  providential,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  the  place. 
When  the  news  of  his  arrival  in  India  reached  England, 
it  produced  a  profound  impression,  not  only  in  the  Baptist 
community,  but  throughout  the  country  at  large.  A  mis- 
sionary party  had  actually  been  sent  to  India  to  inaugurate 
the  great  work  of  the  conversion  of  the  millions  of  that  then 
far-off  empire.  A  report  of  their  arrival  and  the  commence- 
ment of  their  work  seemed  to  fall  upon  the  English  ear  like 
a  summons  from  afar  to  send  forth  more  laborers  into  the 

• 

field.  The  organization  of  the  London  Missionary  Society 
soon  followed,  and  in  many  places,  both  in  England  and 
Scotland,  an  intense  interest  was  manifested  in  the  new 


212  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

enterprise.  The  missionary  era  had  been  fairly  ushered  in, 
and  among  the  great  achievements  of  this  "consecrated 
cobbler,"  perhaps  none  were  more  important  than  that  of 
thus  arousing  the  Christians  of  England  to  a  sense  of  their 
duty  toward  the  heathen  world. 

For  several  years  Mr.  Carey  remained  in  Malda,  quietly  pur- 
suing his  work,  and  applying  himself  diligently  to  the  study,  not 
only  of  the  Bengali,  but  of  other  Oriental  languages.  While 
he  continued  in  the  employ  of  an  Englishman  who  was  con- 
nected with  the  Government  he  was  undisturbed ;  but  as  he 
wished  to  enlarge  his  operations,  and  as  other  missionaries 
were  coming  to  join  him,  a  collision  with  the  Government^, 
seemed  unavoidable.  It  is  difficult  for  persons  at  the  present 
day  to  comprehend  the  extraordinary  feeling  of  opposition 
which  was  cherished  by  the  first  generation  of  Anglo-Indians 
toward  the  missionaries.  The  Government  in  England,  even 
under  so  enlightened  a  statesman  as  the  younger  Pitt,  reso- 
lutely persisted  in  opposing  the  admission  of  missionaries  to 
India.  The  leading  politicians  of  the  day  were  all  of  one 
mind  on  the  subject.  The  rulers  sent  out  to  India,  and  the 
fashionable  society,  such  as  it  was,  which  then  held  sway  in 
Calcutta,  were  bitterly  hostile  to  all  forms  of  missionary  en- 
terprise. This  long-cherished  hostility  was  alike  discred- 
itable to  the  courage  and  intelligence  of  those  who  manifested 
it.  One  has  to  live  in  India  a  long  while  before  such  a 
phenomenon  becomes  intelligible.  In  those  days,  and  even 
down  to  the  present  time,  intelligent  men  may  be  found  who 
are,  in  popular  phrase,  said  to  be  "  Brahmanized;"  that  is, 
they  fall  under  the  influence  of  the  prevailing  tone  of 
thought  among  the  high-caste  people,  and  so  yield  to  an 
invincible  conservatism  as  to  be  opposed  to  almost  every- 
thing that  is  new.  Such  men  really  know  very  little  about 
the  natives,  and  have  always  been  foremost  among  those  who 
have  misinterpreted  the  drift  of  native  opinion.  How- 
ever, for  a  long  generation  men  of  this  class  controlled  pub- 
lic opinion,  both  in  India  and  in  England,  to  such  an 


WILLIAM  CARE  Y.  213 

extent  that  missionaries  were  only  tolerated  on  sufferance,  and 
at  times  were  promptly  deported  from  the  country  when 
they  attempted  to  land.  In  order  to  avoid  this  annoyance, 
when  Mr.  Carey  was  joined,  in  1800,  by  his  two  famous  col- 
leagues, Marshman  and  Ward,  he  resolved  to  abandon  En- 
glish territory,  and  take  refuge  in  the  little  Danish  settle- 
ment of  Serampore.  In  those  days,  when  travel  was  by  boat, 
Serampore  was  eighteen  miles  distant  from  Calcutta;  and 
here  the  missionaries  not  only  enjoyed  the  hospitable  protec- 
tion of  the  enlightened  Danish  king,  who  instructed  his  gov- 
ernor to  welcome  them  and  to  afford  them  every  assistance 
in  their  work,  but  were  also  near  enough  to  Calcutta  to  carry 
on  various  forms  of  Christian  work  in  that  rising  city.  From 
this  time  forward  Serampore  became  the  great  center  of  mis- 
sionary operations  in  India.  Here  the  first  converts  were 
gathered.  Before  the  close  of  the  year  1800,  ten  adults  had 
been  baptized  and  were  organized  into  a  Christian  Church. 
The  first  one  to  confess  Christ  was  a  humble  carpenter,  and 
it  seemed  a  fitting  thing  that  the  great  work  which  was  being 
inaugurated  should  win  its  first  convert  from  among  the 
lowly.  From  this  time  onward  the  work  made  uniform 
progress.  It  had  passed  its  experimental  stage,  and  its  suc- 
cess was  now  an  accomplished  fact. 

By  the  year  1810  the  work  of  this  mission  had  become 
greatly  extended.  Mr.  Carey  had  early  formed  a  plan  for 
planting  mission-stations  all  over  the  country.  His  first 
policy  was  to  make  these  stations  as  nearly  as  possible  self- 
supporting.  He  had  missionaries  sent  out  from  England, 
and  also  picked  up  and  educated  such  men  as  he  could  find 
in  the  country.  It  was  in  the  year  1810  that  he  obtained 
consent  from  the  Governor-General  to  send  a  man  to  Agra — 
the  first  movement  of  the  kind  in  all  North  India.  He  had 
then  five  missions  in  operation ;  namely,  in  Bengal,  Bhutan, 
Burma,  Orissa,  and  the  new  mission  in  Agra.  By  the  year 
1817  he  had  thirty  missionaries  at  work,  and  stations  had 
been  opened,  not  only  in  other  parts  of  India,  but  far  down 


214  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

in  Malaysia,  his  own  son  having  been  sent  to  Amboyna  in 
the  year  1817.  He  had  also,  by  this  time,  seven  converted 
Hindu  preachers  on  his  staff  of  regular  workers.  From  the 
first  he  had  given  attention  to  education,  and  founded  schools 
both  for  boys  and  girls.  These  at  the  outset  were  unpreten- 
tious enough ;  but  it  was  an  era  in  the  history  of  India  when 
the  first  attempt  was  made  to  teach  girls,  however  infor- 
mally. The  schools  established  were  of  different  grades,  but 
the  educational  work  finally  culminated  in  a  vigorous  college 
at  Serampore.  This  institution  received  a  royal  charter  from 
the  King  of  Denmark ;  and  by  special  treaty  with  England, 
when  Serampore  was  transferred  to  the  latter  power,  the 
charter  was  left  unimpaired  in  the  hands  of  the  college 
authorities.  Although  at  a  later  day  Dr.  Duff  acquired,  in 
an  important  sense,  the  reputation  of  the  founder  of  English 
education,  yet  in  this,  as  in  nearly  every  other  department  of 
missionary  work,  Carey  was  the  real  pioneer. 

But  the  great  work  of  "William  Carey  was  that  of  trans- 
lation. As  soon  as  he  had  mastered  Bengali,  he  began  the 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  that  vernacular;  and  by  the  year 
1796  we  find  mention  of  his  work  as  being  already  somewhat 
advanced.  It  was  not  finished,  however,  till  1809.  It  was  a 
difficult  work  to  translate  such  a  book  as  the  Bible  into  such 
a  language  as  the  Bengali  then  was.  Dr.  Carey  has  been 
called  the  Wickliffe  of  the  East,  and  the  future  will  probably 
show  that  he  has  done  for  Bengali  what  the  early  English 
translator  did  for  the  English  language.  Until  he  estab- 
lished his  press  at  Serampore,  the  Bengali  language  had  no 
printed  literature,  and  but  little  literature  of  any  kind.  Such 
as  existed  was  in  manuscript,  and,  of  course,  inaccessible  to 
the  people.  Not  only  was  the  Bible  published  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  common  people  at  Serampore,  but  also  other 
publications  of  various  kinds,  including  the  first  newspaper 
ever  issued  in  the  vernacular ;  and  thus  was  laid  the  founda- 
tion, not  only  of  the  Bengali  literature  of  the  present  day,  but, 
to  an  important  extent,  of  the  Bengali  language  itself. 


WILLIAM  CAREY.  215 

At  an  early  period  in  his  missionary  life,  Dr.  Carey* 
formed  a  plan  for  translating  the  Bible  into  as  many  of  the 
great  Asiatic  languages  as  possible.  With  his  own  hand  he 
made  a  complete  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Bengali,  San- 
skrit, Hindi,  and  Marathi.  He  also,  in  connection  with  his 
missionary  brethren,  supervised  the  translation  into  other 
tongues,  until  twenty- eight  versions  of  the  Scriptures  were 
sent  out  from  the  Serampore  press  before  his  death.  It  has 
been  objected  that  much  of  this  work  was  very  immature. 
This  need  surprise  no  one.  It  could  not  have  been  other- 
wise. Dr.  Carey  himself  always  maintained  that  his  work 
was  that  of  a  pioneer;  and  while  it  is  very  true  that  not  many 
of  his  versions  are  now  in  common  use,  yet  every  man  who 
has  labored  in  this  great  field  of  Bible  translating  would,  no 
doubt,  cheerfully  testify  that  he  owed  much  to  the  work  of 
those  who  went  before  him. 

Space  will  not  permit  further  mention  of  many  interesting 
particulars  in  the  life  of  this  extraordinary  man.  To  write 
his  life  is  to  write  the  history  of  the  missionary  enterprise 
during  its  first  stage  in  India.  He  encountered  much  obloquy 
and  no  little  hostility  in  the  course  of  his  career;  but  he 
lived  to  become  not  only  respected,  but  honored  by  the  Gov- 
erment  which  at  first  refused  to  receive  him,  and  for  a  time 
was  his  avowed  enemy.  He  was  appointed  by  the  Gov- 
ernor-General of  India  Professor  of  Sanskrit  in  the  College 
of  Fort  William,  at  a  time  when  he  was  one  of  the  only 
two  Englishmen  in  India  who  could  speak  Sanskrit  with  the 
ease  of  an  Indian  pundit.  He  was  even  invited  into  counsel 
by  the  Governor-General,  and  for  a  long  period  was  a  trusted 
adviser  of  successive  Governors-General.  He  was  bitterly 
denounced  both  in  India  and  in  London,  misrepresented  and 
unjustly  treated  in  many  ways;  but,  as  he  always  lived  supe- 
rior to  such  annoyances,  they  never  permanently  affected  his 
reputation.  His  unaffected  modesty,  not  to  say  humility, 

*  He  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Brown  Univer- 
sity, in  1806. 


216  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

not  only  adorned  his  life,  but  served  as  a  protection  to  him  in 
the  midst  of  the  scorn  and  contempt  with  which  he  was 
sometimes  treated.  At  a  dinner-table  a  gentleman  said  to 
him :  "  Is  it  possible,  Mr.  Carey,  that  in  early  life  you  were 
a  shoemaker?"  "No,"  was  the  modest  reply,  "not  a  shoe- 
maker ;  only  a  cobbler." 

On  the  ninth  of  June,  1834,  this  great  and  good  man 
entered  into  rest.  He  had  never  quitted  his  post,  but  for 
forty-one  long  years  had  worked  patiently  and  cheerfully  in 
the  field  to  which  God  had  called  him.  He  had  not  only 
been  the  founder  of  modern  missions,  but  had  proved  himself 
a  great  benefactor  of  India  in  many  ways.  He  had  been 
among  the  very  first  to  demand  the  abolition  of  widow-burn- 
ing and  infanticide,  and  he  was  a  pioneer  in  every  reform 
movement.  His  fame  as  a  botanist  was  only  second  to  his 
reputation  as  a  linguist,  and  he  devoted  himself  as  cheerfully 
to  improving  the  horticulture  of  Bengal  as  he  did  to  creat- 
ing its  literature  or  advancing  its  education.  In  short,  he 
was  wholly  devoted  to  India  and  its  people;  and  had  he 
been  a  less  extraordinary  man,  it  would  have  been  impossi- 
ble for  any  one  so  devoted  to  live  and  die  in  vain. 

More  than  half  a  century  has  passed  since  Carey's  death, 
and  now  it  may  be  truly  said  that  his  works  do  indeed  fol- 
low him.  The  mission-station  founded  by  him  at  Serampore 
has  declined  in  importance,  chiefly  owing  to  local  changes, 
but  his  work  has  spread  far  and  wide,  and  shows  no  signs  of 
decay.  His  work  had  all  the  elements  of  permanency.  It 
is,  in  brief,  the  work  of  Christian  missions  in  India  and  the 
East.  It  put  no  trust  in  any  arm  of  flesh,  and  hence  has 
never  been  forsaken.  It  built  upon  no  artificial  foundations, 
and  hence  abides  in  strength.  It  sought  out  the  hearts  of 
the  people,  and  hence  has  never  witnessed  the  great  ebb- 
tides which  followed  the  movements  of  Xavier  and  others  of 
his  class.  The  work  of  Bible  translation,  of  creating  a  Chris- 
tian literature,  of  education,  of  heart-conversion,  of  Church 


WILLIAM  CAREY.  217 

organization,  of  planting  new  missions,  of  educating  mission- 
aries,— all  these  have  gone  forward  steadily,  and  seem  to 
gain  in  vigor  and  strength  with  each  advancing  year. 

I  may  close  this  very  imperfect  sketch  of  the  great  mis- 
sionary by  a  brief  extract  from  an  address  which  I  delivered 
in  America  a  few  years  ago: 

Long  before  his  death  his  Master  had  vindicated  his 
servant,  even  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  He  lived  to  be  an 
honored  guest  and  a  trusted  adviser  in  the  vice-regal  palace 
from  which  the  edict  of  banishment  had  once  been  issued 
against  him.  He  won  the  confidence  of  the  people  for  whom 
he  lived  and  labored,  and  gained  the  esteem  of  his  countrymen, 
among  whom  he  moved  as  a  venerated  saint  of  the  Most 
High.  As  old  age  drew  near,  honors  began  to  cluster  thickly 
around  him,  but  he  was  still  a  simple  missionary  of  Jesus 
Christ.  On  his  tombstone  he  directed  that  this  couplet  should 
be  engraved  : 

"A  guilty,  weak,  and  helpless  worm, 
On  Thy  kind  arms  I  fall." 

And  the  words  expressed  the  spirit  of  the  man.  Long  years 
have  passed  since  the  death  of  William  Carey,  but  each 
year  has  only  added  luster  to  his  fame.  The  very  names  of 
his  former  persecutors,  once  leaders  in  Calcutta  society,  would 
have  long  since  perished  but  for  their  connection  with  this 
great  man.  The  epithet  coined  by  Sydney  Smith  will  prob- 
ably survive  every  other  word  and  phrase  written  by  that 
popular  satirist,  who  in  future  centuries  will  only  be  remem- 
bered as  the  man  who  ridiculed  William  Carey.  During  a 
residence  of  a  dozen  years  in  Calcutta,  I  met  many  tourists 
from  England  and  America.  Among  them  all  I  recall  but 
one  who  wished  to  see  the  house  in  which  Macaulay  had 
lived;  one  asked  to  see  the  house  in  which  Thackeray  had 
been  born ;  and  two  or  three  inquired  for  the  residence  of 
Warren  Hastings.  But  literally  scores  upon  scores  have 


218  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

asked  to  be  led  to  the  grave  of  William  Carey,  and  the  little 
bury  ing-ground  in  the  old  Danish  settlement  of  Serampore 
has  become  like  a  pilgrim's  shrine,  to  which  Christian  men 
and  women  come  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  No  man  ever 
entered  a  more  despised  service,  and  no  man  was  ever  more 
signally  honored  and  rewarded  by  the  service  to  which  he 
gave  himself. 


Chapter   XVI. 


THE  FIRST  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  MISSION 
IN  INDIA. 

IT  was  for  many  years  felt  by  intelligent  members  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  that  the  long  delay  of  the 
American  Methodists  in  entering  the  foreign  mission-field, 
presented  a  just  cause  of  reproach  when  contrasted  with  the 
active  efforts  of  the  other  leading  Churches  of  the  country. 
Although  for  many  years  numerically  the  strongest  Church  in 
the  United  States,  and  well  known  from  the  first  as  among 
the  most  vigorous  and  prosperous,  yet  she  was  the  last  of 
the  leading  religious  bodies  of  the  country  to  enter  the 
foreign  field.  The  Cougregationalists,  Baptists,  Presbyte- 
rians, Lutherans,  Dutch  Reformed,  and  other  smaller  bodies, 
were  all  represented  in  foreign  lauds  before  the  first  mission- 
ary of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  had  been  sent  to  the 
heathen  proper  in  any  foreign  country.  The  usual  explana- 
tion which  has  been  offered  for  this  delay  has  been  that  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  more  than  any  other,  threw  all 
her  energies  into  the  work  of  home  evangelization,  especially 
in  the  new  fields  of  the  great  West.  That  she  has  done  a 
notable  work  in  that  field,  all  the  world  can  testify ;  but  this 
is  not  the  real  explanation  of  her  seeming  delay  in  entering 
the  foreign  field.  In  order  to  account  for  her  absence  from 
the  great  mission-fields  of  the  world  during  the  first  half  of 
the  present  century,  it  needs  only  be  stated  that  the  Church 
herself  had  only  been  fairly  organized  at  the  opening  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  was  in  no  wise  prepared  to  take  up 
so  great  a  work  as  that  which  even  a  single  foreign  mission 
involves.  At  the  time  Dr.  Carey  was  busy  in  helping  to 

219 


220  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

organize  the  first  modern  missionary  society  in  England, 
Bishop  Asbury  was  engaged  in  organizing  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  America.  The  English  Baptists  were 
thus  ready  to  begin  their  foreign  work  at  about  the  same 
time  that  the  American  Methodists  began  to  be  a  people. 
All  the  other  leading  religious  bodies  of  the  country  had  been 
organized  and  at  work  for  periods  ranging  from  a  century  to 
a  century  and  a  half  before  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
was  formally  organized  in  1784.  After  that  organization 
had  been  effected,  a  whole  generation  elapsed  before  this 
newly  created  body  was  prepared  for  anything  like  aggressive 
work  in  foreign  lands.  This  one  fact  affords  explanation 
sufficient  for  what  seems  to  an  outside  observer  like  an  un- 
reasonable delay. 

During  the  first  generation  of  American  Methodism  the 
leaders  of  the  Church  were  so  absorbed  in  completing  its  or- 
ganization, and  in  pushing  the  work  of  evangelization  in  the 
West  and  South,  that  it  does  not  seem  that  it  ever  occurred 
to  any  of  them  that  God  might  have  a  great  work  for 
the  Church  beyond  the  seas.  This  oversight,  strangely 
enough,  seems  to  have  been  common  to  all  the  leading 
Churches  of  both  England  and  America.  The  first  call  to 
work  among  the  heathen  seems  to  have  come  in  nearly 
every  case  from  unexpected  quarters,  and  by  the  lips  of  com- 
paratively obscure  persons.  The  first  trumpet-call  which  the 
American  Methodists  received  was  from  an  illiterate  and  ob- 
scure colored  man  living  in  Marietta,  Ohio,  named  John 
Stewart.  Soon  after  his  conversion,  in  1816,  he  began  to  speak 
of  strange  voices  which  seemed  to  beckon  him  away  toward 
the  Northwest,  and  he  felt  impelled  to  follow  on,  persuaded 
that  some  people,  living  he  knew  not  where,  were  calling  for 
his  help.  It  is  not  strange  that  such  a  man,  with  so  brief  a 
Christian  life  to  recommend  him,  failed  to  impress  those 
around  him  by  such  a  story;  but  not  taking  further  counsel 
with  flesh  and  blood,  he  set  out  alone  through  the  wilder- 
ness, and  traveled  on,  day  after  day,  until  he  reached  a  tribe 


FIRST  METHODIST  MISSION.  221 

of  Indians  in  Northern  Ohio.  He  at  once  began  to  preach 
to  them  through  an  interpreter,  and  extraordinary  success  at- 
tended his  work.  Many  were  converted,  and  a  work  began 
among  these  wild  children  of  the  forest  which  arrested  the 
attention  of  the  Church,  and  profoundly  moved  many  leading 
Methodists  of  Ohio  to  organize  a  movement  for  the  support 
of  the  work.  This  extraordinary  call  from  the  wilderness 
was  the  means  used  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  initiate  the  move- 
ment which  led  to  the  organization  of  the  Missionary  Society 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Unfortunately,  the 
formal  organization  was  effected  in  New  York,  far  from  the 
scene  of  this  good  man's  activity,  and  by  men  who,  though 
able  in  other  respects,  knew  very  little  about  the  kind  of 
work  to  be  done.  The  whole  Church  was  familiar  with 
home  evangelization ;  but  when  the  new  Missionary  Society 
had  been  organized,  people  generally  were  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  to  do  with  it.  For  a  time  its  funds  were  employed  in 
Bible  distribution  and  other  work  in  America;  and,  although 
the  Society  was  organized  in  1819,  it  was  not  till  1832  that 
the  first  missionary  was  sent  to  a  foreign  field.  Perhaps  no 
other  Church  in  America  would  have  delayed  so  long;  but 
we  can  account  for  this  easily  enough  by  considering  that  the 
Church  was  steadily  moving  West  and  South  with  increasing 
momentum,  and  that  its  leaders  really  did  not  comprehend 
the  character  of  the  new  movement  which  had  been  inau- 
gurated. The  real  inspiration  of  the  movement  was  the  suc- 
cessful preaching  of  the  gospel  to  the  heathen — that  is,  to  men 
who  had  no  knowledge  of  the  gospel  whatever — by  John 
Stewart;  and  if  the  leaders  had  at  once  proceeded  to  send 
men  to  other  heathen  tribes,  or  to  heathen  nations  abroad,  no 
doubt  the  work  would  have  proceeded  with  grand  success 
from  the  first. 

The  mission  to  Liberia  was  not  properly  a  mission  to  the 
heathen  at  all.  A  colony  of  Negroes,  most  of  whom  had 
been  slaves  in  America,  was  planted  on  the  western  coast  of 
Africa,  and  while  it  was  hoped  that  this  colony  might  be 


222  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

used  as  a  base  from  which  to  reach  the  heathen  tribes  of  the 
interior,  yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  missionaries  sent  to  Li- 
beria confined  their  labors,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  colonists, 
and  for  many  years  the  mission  was  limited  almost  exclu- 
sively to  men  who  had  been  Christians  before  leaving  Amer- 
ica. The  next  mission-field  occupied  was  in  South  America; 
but  here,  too,  the  same  strange  reluctance  to  grapple  with 
the  real  problem  which  God  was  setting  before  the  Church 
was  for  a  long  time  manifested.  At  Buenos  Ayres  a  Church 
was  maintained  for  many  years;  but  it  wras  practically  a 
Church  supported  by  English-speaking  Protestants,  and  for 
a  long  period  many  of  its  supporters  were  positively  hostile 
to  any  effort  being  made  among  the  Spanish-speaking  Roman 
Catholics  of  the  city.  In  the  meanwhile,  after  what  now 
seems  to  us  extraordinary  delay,  the  thought  finally  began  to 
impress  itself  upon  our  people  that  God's  first  great  call  to 
them  was  to  do  their  part  in  fulfilling  Christ's  great  com- 
mission to  give  the  gospel  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth ; 
and  at  last,  in  1847 — that  is,  sixty-three  years  after  the  Church 
had  been  first  organized,  and  twenty-eight  years  after  the 
Missionary  Society  had  been  organized — the  first  missionaries 
were  sent  to  found  a  mission  in  China.  This  was  really  the 
beginning  of  our  work  in  heathen  lands;  and  from  this  time 
forward  the  conviction  began  to  be  more  generally  realized 
that  the  Church  must  take  up  this  great  work,  and  perform 
a  part  worthy  of  her  position  and  numerical  strength  in  the 
years  to  come. 

A  few  years  after  the  first  mission  had  been  planted  in 
China,  at  Foochow,  Dr.  Durbin,  who  had  recently  become 
Secretary  of  the  Missionary  Society,  became  impressed  that 
the  Church  should  plant  a  strong  mission  in  India.  He  saw 
clearly  that  India  was  not  only  at  that  time,  but  for  a  long 
period  in  the  future  must  continue  to  be,  the  leading  mission- 
field  of  the  world ;  the  great  battle  between  Christianity  on 
the  one  hand,  and  Islamism  and  heathenism  on  the  other, 
must  be  fought  out  in  that  empire.  Although  the  field  had 


FIRST  METHODIST  MISSION.  223 

been  occupied  by  so  many  societies,  and  so  many  workers 
bad  been  sent  out  to  it  from  Great  Britain,  Germany,  and 
America,  yet  vast  regions  in  different  parts  of  the  empire  re~ 
mained  unoccupied;  and  Dr.  Durbin  lost  no  time  in  formally 
proposing  to  the  General  Committee  ot  the  Missionary  So- 
ciety to  select  one  of  these  unoccupied  fields,  and  establish  a 
mission  in  it  worthy  of  the  work  to  be  done  and  of  the 
Church  which  proposed  to  undertake  it.  His  proposal  met 
with  much  favor,  and  in  1852  the  first  appropriation  was 
made  for  money  to  send  out  a  missionary,  and  the  Bishops 
were  requested  to  select  a  proper  man  for  superintendent.  Four 
years,  however,  elapsed,  during  which  this  appropriation  of 
$7,500  was  kept  standing,  before  any  one  with  proper  qualifica- 
tions could  be  found  willing  to  assume  the  responsible  task 
of  founding  a  great  mission  in  India.  It  would  surprise  our 
people  at  the  present  day  if  the  whole  truth  were  told  about 
the  search  for  a  superintendent  of  the  proposed  mission  in 
India  between  1852  and  1856.  The  whole  story  will  prob- 
ably never  be  told,  for  it  is  not  likely  that  any  record  of  the 
search  has  been  preserved ;  but  incidentally  I  have  heard  of 
so  many  men  who  were  asked,  and  who  for  various  reasons 
were  unable  to  accept  the  post,  that  I  incline  to  the  opinion 
that  no  other  prominent  post  in  all  the  history  of  our  Church 
was  ever  declined  by  so  many  nominees. 

At  last,  in  1856,  William  Butler,  of  the  New  England 
Conference,  was  asked  to  accept  the  post,  and,  after  a  brief 
but  earnest  consideration  of  the  proposal,  he  consented.  He 
had  many  qualifications  for  the  work  of  founding  such  a 
mission,  especially  in  India.  An  Irishman  by  birth  and 
early  association,  educated  in  England,  and  with  an  experi- 
ence of  some  years  in  ministerial  work  in  America,  he  pos- 
sessed a  knowledge  at  once  of  American  Methodism  and 
English  governmental  ways  which  fitted  him  peculiarly  for 
founding  an  American  mission  in  a  country  under  English 
administration.  He  was  still  in  his  early  prime,  with  robust 
health,  indomitable  energy,  and  unquenchable  enthusiasm. 


224 


INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 


He  sailed  promptly  with,  his  family  for  his  field,  and  on  the 
25th  of  September  landed  at  Calcutta.  After  spending  a  few 
months  in  consultation  with  leading  missionaries,  he  chose 
for  the  mission-field  of  the  Church  which  he  represented  the 
little  province  of  Rohilkhand,  included  between  the  Upper 
Ganges  and  the  Himalaya  Mountains,  and  the  western  half 


WILLIAM  BUTLER,  D.  D. 

of  the  better  known  province  of  Oudh,  making  a  compact 
little  territory,  in  which  he  proposed  to  organize  a  mission 
with  a  working  force  of  twenty-five  American  missionaries. 
This  had  been  designated  by  Dr.  Durbin  as  one  of  the  fields 
which  he  should  examine,  and,  for  many  reasons,  it  seemed 
the  best  which  was  open  to  him.  No  other  missionary  was 
then  af  work  in  any  part  of  Oudh  or  Rohilkhand,  and  it  was 
considered  peculiarly  fortunate  that  the  new  mission  could 


FIRST  METHODIST  MISSION.  225 

thus  have  a  field  wholly  to  itself.  In  those  days  a  great  deal 
of  importance  was  attached  to  this  consideration.  The  no- 
tion which  is  still  popular  with  many  was  then  universally 
accepted — that  missionaries  should  avoid  contact  with  one  an- 
other as  much  as  possible.  It  was  taken  for  granted  that 
jealousy  and  rivalry  would  produce  the  same  unhappy  fruits 
in  mission-fields  as  in  other  departments  of  human  labor,  and 
hence  missionaries  shunned  one  another's  presence,  rather 
than  sought  it. 

Having  chosen  his  field,  Dr.  Butler  fixed  his  residence  in 
the  city  of  Bareilly,  the  head-quarters  of  the  political  district 
known  as  Rohilkhand,  and  wrote  home  for  re-enforcements. 
Two  missionaries  were  at  once  dispatched  to  his  assistance, 
and  intimation  given  that  a  larger  re-enforcement  would  fol- 
low the  succeeding  year ;  but  the  earnest  pioneer  of  the  mis- 
sion had  hardly  become  comfortably  settled  in  his  new  home 
when  the  Sepoy  Mutiny  broke  out,  and,  on  the  31st  of  May, 
1857,  the  English  residents  of  Bareilly  were  all  either  killed 
or  dispersed  abroad  by  the  mutiny  of  the  Sepoys  at  that  sta- 
tion. Dr.  Butler  escaped  with  his  family  to  Naini  Tal,  a 
station  in  the  Himalayas,  about  seventy-five  miles  distant, 
and  for  some  time  disappeared  wholly  from  the  outer  world. 
The  new  mission  seemed  to  be  broken  up,  and  the  field, 
which  had  a  few  months  before  seemed  so  peculiarly  favor- 
able for  mission-work,  was  now  one  vast  scene  of  anarchy 
and  bloodshed.  The  Church  at  home  knew  nothing  of  the 
fate  of  its  missionary.  Dr.  Duff,  whose  weekly  letters  from 
Calcutta  were  published  in  Scotland,  and  widely  republished 
in  America,  reported  that  he  had  fled  from  Bareilly,  and  it 
was  hoped  that  he  was  safe  in  the  mountains,  although  his 
friends  could  not  help  fearing  the  worst  for  him. 

The  story  of  Dr.  Butler's  peril  and  of  his  flight  with  his 
family  to  the  mountains,  produced  a  profound  effect  on  the 
Church  in  America,  and  was  overruled  in  the  providence  of 
God  to  enlist  the  sympathy  of  our  people  in  the  new  mis- 
sion to  an  extent  which  could  not  have  been  anticipated.  In 

15 


226  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

like  manner  God  has  repeatedly  used  singular  providences 
of  this  kind  to  arrest  the  attention  of  great  Christian  com- 
munities, and  commit  them  to  the  work  of  sending  the  gos- 
pel to  heathen  nations.  The  career  of  Henry  Martyn,  and 
his  lonely  death,  at  once  romantic  and  tragic,  produced  a 
powerful  effect  upon  the  minds  of  the  evangelical  wing  ol 
the  Church  of  England,  and  became  a  powerful  factor  in  the 
full  organization  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  which  is 
at  present  the  leading  Protestant  Society  of  the  world.  The 
death  of  Dr.  Coke  at  sea,  when,  in  his  old  age,  he  was  leading 
the  first  band  of  English  Methodist  missionaries  to  India,  pro- 
duced a  similar  impression  upon  the  minds  of  the  English 
Methodists,  and  more  fully  committed  them  to  the  work  of 
India's  conversion  than  all  the  eloquence  and  zeal  of  that 
great  leader  had  been  able  to  accomplish.  The  extraor- 
dinary manner  in  which  Dr.  Judson  was  led  to  change  his 
views  on  baptism,  and  while  in  a  strange  land,  without 
friends  and  without  support,  to  identify  himself  with  the 
American  Baptists,  was  singularly  overruled  in  committing 
that  great  body  of  Christians  to  the  support  of  the  work  in 
India  which  has  so  greatly  prospered  in  their  hands.  The 
struggles  of  Dr.  Duff  in  trying  to  reach  India,  having  been 
shipwrecked  no  less  than  three  times  on  the  voyage,  produced 
also  a  profound  impression  upon  the  Presbyterians  of  Scot- 
land, and,  instead  of  hindering  the  wrork  to  which  he  had 
committed  himself,  was  overruled  in  such  a  way  as  to  put 
him  more  prominently  before  the  Church,  and  make  him  an 
object  of  love  and  sympathy  to  an  extent  which  he  otherwise 
would  not  have  been  able  to  secure  in  the  course  of  long 
years.  Thus,  too,  when  the  story  of  Dr.  Butler's  peril  and 
escape  was  told  in  America,  it  had  the  effect  of  rousing  the 
Church  and  concentrating  its  attention  upon  the  new  mission- 
field  in  India,  and  also  not  only  stimulating  many  to  give  for 
its  support,  but  suggesting  the  thought  to  many  young  men 
of  going  to  the  rescue. 

On  the  very  day  that  the  mutiny  broke  out  at  Bareilly, 


FIRST  METHODIST  MISSION.  227 

two  missionaries,  Ralph  Pierce  and  J.  L.  Humphrey,  with 
their  families,  sailed  from  Boston,  and  in  due  time  landed  at 
Calcutta,  to  learn  that  the  first  mission-house  had  been  de- 
stroyed, and  that  their  field  was  for  the  present  closed  against 
them.  As  soon  as  the  country  was  sufficiently  pacified,  they 
proceeded  to  the  Northwest,  and  Dr.  Butler,  having  in  the 
meantime  left  his  family  in  safety  at  Naini  Tal,  joined  them  at 
Meerut,  and  accompanied  them,  by  a  circuitous  journey  through 
the  mountains,  to  Naini  Tal,  where  they  arrived  on  the  16th 
of  April,  1858.  The  whole  missionary  body  remained  in  this 
mountain  retreat  throughout  the  summer  of  that  year;  but 
when,  near  its  close,  the  country  below  had  become  suffi- 
ciently pacified,  Bareilly  was  reoccupied,  and  the  station  of 
Moradabad  taken  up  by  the  Rev.  J.  Parsons,  an  English 
missionary  who  had  joined  Dr.  Butler  in  Naiui  Tal,  while  a 
little  later  Mr.  Pierce  proceeded  with  Dr.  Butler  to  Luck- 
now.  The  real  work  of  the  mission  may  be  said  to  have 
begun  in  1859.  During  1858  the  missionaries  had  practically 
done  little  more  than  reach  their  stations.  There  were  now 
five  men  in  the  field — another  Englishman,  the  Rev.  S. 
Knowles,  having  in  the  meantime  joined  the  mission — and 
the  four  stations  of  Naini  Tal,  Bareilly,  Moradabad,  and 
Lucknow  were  formally  occupied. 

While  the  way  was  thus  cleared  in  India  for  entering 
upon  the  work  of  the  projected  mission  at  the  beginning  of 
1859,  an  eifort  which  at  that  not  very  remote  day  was  con- 
sidered extraordinary,  was  made  to  send  out  a  re-enforcement 
of  six  men.  Up  to  that  time  no  such  missionary  party  had 
ever  been  sent  abroad  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
and  seldom  had  such  a  party  been  sent  out  by  any  of  the 
great  missionary  societies.  It  was  still  comparatively  the 
.day  of  small  things  in  missionary  enterprise,  and  a  profound 
impression  was  made  throughout  the  Church  when,  early  in 
the  year,  it  was  announced  that  six  men  had  actually  been 
secured  and  were  ready  to  sail.  The  first  appointed  and  oldest 
member  of  this  re-enforcement  was  the  Rev.  James  Baume,  of 


228  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Evanston,  who,  with  his  family,  at  once  sailed  for  England, 
wishing  to  visit  friends  there  on  his  way  to  his  distant  field. 
The  other  members  of  the  party  were  C.  W.  Judd  and  Mrs. 
Judd,  of  the  Wyoming  Conference ;  J.  W.  Waugh  and  Mrs. 
Waugh,  of  the  Southern  Illinois  Conference;  E.  W.  Parker 
and  Mrs.  Parker,  of  Vermont ;  J.  R.  Downey  and  Mrs. 
Downey,  of  Indiana ;  and  J.  M.  Thoburn,  of  Ohio.  Ar- 
rangements were  speedily  made  for  the  departure  of  these 
missionaries,  and  on  the  12th  of  April  they  sailed  from  Bos- 
ton, and  arrived  in  Calcutta  on  the  21st  of  August.  Their 
going  forth  deepened  the  impression  which  had  been  made 
upon  the  Church,  and  it  began  to  be  felt  among  our  people 
generally  that  they  were  at  last  fully  committed  to  perform  a 
worthy  share  in  the  great  work  of  winning  the  heathen  world 
for  Christ.  It  may  seem  strange  at  the  present  day  that  the 
departure  of  six  missionaries  for  a  distant  mission-field  should 
have  received  more  than  an  ordinary  notice  in  the  news- 
papers, but  it  is  difficult  to  realize  in  these  better  days  how 
backward  the  Church  had  been  in  everything  pertaining  to 
her  missionary  duty. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  five  members  of  this  missionary 
party  still  survive,  and  are  found  at  their  posts  of  duty  in 
India.  Mr.  Baume  holds  a  prominent  position  as  pastor  in 
the  great  city  of  Bombay,  which  is  becoming  more  and  more 
the  gateway  to  the  whole  empire.  Dr.  Waugh  is  general 
treasurer  of  the  Missionary  Society  for  all  India.  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Parker,  after  thirty-three  years  of  exceptionally  vigorous 
work,  are  still  rendering  as  effective  service  as  ever,  the 
former  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Oudh  District,  and  the  latter 
abundant  in  labors  among  the  women,  and  active  in  the  in- 
spection of  schools  in  her  husband's  district.  The  writer  of 
these  pages  was  the  sixth  member  of  the  party,  and,  like  the 
other  survivors,  feels  that  his  work  is  still  unfinished,  and 
hopes  for  other  years  of  usefulness  in  the  great  empire  of  India. 
It  is  seldom  that  any  missionary  party  has  been  so  graciously 
preserved  through  so  many  long  years  of  toil  in  the  Indian 


FIRST  METHODIST  MISSION.  229 

climate,  which  does  not  always  deal  kindly  with  foreign 
laborers. 

In  anticipation  of  the  arrival  of  the  new  missionaries,  Dr. 
Butler  had  announced  the  first  formal  annual  meeting  of  the 
mission  to  take  place  at  Lucknow,  where  the  meeting  was 
convened  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  September,  1859. 
The  missionary  party  from  Calcutta  had  arrived  late  in  the 
evening  of  the  3d,  and,  after  a  Sabbath's  rest,  at  once  entered 
upon  their  life-work  by  formally  taking  their  places  as  mem- 
bers of  the  annual  meeting.  Thirteen  names  were  entered 
upon  the  roll,  although  only  nine  of  these  were  ordained 
missionaries  from  the  United  States.  Messrs.  Parsons  and 
Knowles,  of  whom  mention  has  already  been  made,  were 
present,  and  also  a  young  man  named  Cawdell,  an  English 
Scripture  reader,  from  Calcutta.  One  native  of  India  was 
present  in  the  person  of  Joel  T.  Janvier,  a  faithful  Christian 
preacher,  who,  although  for  some  years  past  stricken  with 
blindness,  is  still  a  member  of  the  North  India  Conference, 
a  faithful  Christian,  and  a  valuable  worker.  Mr.  Parsons, 
before  the  close  of  1859,  severed  his  connection  with  the 
mission,  and  Mr.  Cawdell's  connection  with  the  mission  also 
did  not  prove  a  permanent  one.  The  brethren  remained  to- 
gether for  a  full  week  in  earnest  discussion,  and  then 
separated,  to  go  to  the  different  posts  to  which  they  had  been 
assigned.  One  of  them,  J.  R.  Downey,  never  reached  his 
station.  He  was  taken  ill  the  day  after  the  meeting  ad- 
journed, and  after  five  days  suffering  entered  into  his  eternal 
rest.  The  India  mission  was  now  fairly  equipped  with 
workers,  although  most  of  them  were  as  yet  unfamiliar  with 
the  language  of  the  people,  and  may  be  said  to  have  entered 
fairly  upon  its  career. 

The  missionaries  in  the  field,  as  well  as  the  Church  in 
America,  looked  upon  this  work  as  a  mission  in  India  rather 
than  as  a  mission  to  India.  The  term  "  India "  was  to  the 
American  people  in  those  days  a  mere  geographical  expres- 
sion. No  one  ever  thought  of  its  imperial  interests,  or  of 


230  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

its  possible  destiny  among  the  great  empires  of  the  world,  or 
of  the  character  and  interests  of  the  various  peoples  of  which 
the  empire  was  made  up.  The  idea  was  that  a  certain  task 
in  India  had  been  assigned  to  a  great  Church  in  America, 
and,  however  small  relatively  the  field  chosen  may  have 
seemed,  it  certainly  appeared  large  enough  both  to  the  young 
missionaries  and  to  their  supporters  in  the  United  States. 
No  one  dreamed  of  any  extension  of  the  field  for  years  and 
generations  to  come.  No  one  was  sanguine  enough  or  wild 
enough  to  suppose  that  a  time  would  come  when  the  infant 
mission  would  rise  up  in  the  possession  of  unsuspected 
energy,  and  strengthen  its  stakes  and  lengthen  its  cords  until 
its  operations  were  extended,  not  only  to  the  most  remote 
parts  of  the  Indian  Empire,  but  iuto  vast  regions  beyond  its 
boundaries — regions  which  at  that  time  were  but  little  known. 
The  missionary  idea  a  generation  ago  was,  as  compared  with 
the  present,  a  very  contracted  one.  The  popular  thought 
was  not  wide  enough  to  take  in  the  many  far-reaching  in- 
terests which  must  always  be  associated  with  a  successful 
mission  among  a  great  people.  In  fact,  even  at  the  present 
time  comparatively  few  people  in  Europe  or  America  can 
comprehend  the  idea  of  a  non-Christian  people  being  other 
than  half-civilized,  half-clad  idolaters,  without  much  social 
coherence,  without  any  great  national  bonds  to  hold  them 
together,  and  without  those  great  interests  which  in  Christian 
lands  are  always  recognized  as  being  held  in  common  by 
the  high  and  low  of  every  country  and  every  nationality. 

It  does  certainly  seem  as  if  the  missionaries  assembled 
in  Lucknow  in  September,  1859,  might  have  been  wiser  in 
their  generation  than  to  have  contented  themselves  with  the 
contracted  view  which  they  then  entertained.  But  those  of 
the  number  who  still  survive  are  able  fully  to  realize  what 
it  is  to  be  wise  after  an  event.  They  were  as  far-seeing, 
probably,  as  the  average  of  their  fellow-men,  but  they  were 
in  a  field  in  which  everything  was  new  to  them.  They  had  no 
past  experience  to  guide  them ;  and  among  all  the  missionaries 


FIRST  METHODIST  MISSION.  231 

then  in  India,  it  would  have  been  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
to  find  one  who  had  learned  how  to  familiarize  himself  with 
imperial  missionary  views.  The  common  idea  then  was  that 
so  many  heathen  were  to  be  converted,  and  that  as  many 
missionaries  as  could  be  found  should  be  sent  to  them  to 
teach  them  the  truths  of  Christianity.  Some  time  in  the 
future — probably  in  the  very  distant  future — great  movements 
might  be  expected  to  take  place  ;  but  the  men  of  the  present 
were  not  to  trouble  themselves  with  thoughts  of  this  kind. 
They  were  to  do  their  portion  of  the  work.  It  is  true  that 
the  field,  small  as  it  was,  which  had  first  been  selected  by 
Dr.  Butler,  with  the  approval  of  the  authorities  in  America, 
had  already  been  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  the  mountain 
province  of  Kumaon.  This  itself  seemed  providential 
enough.  The  missionaries  had  not  designed  to  have  it  so, 
but  having  been  led  to  Naini  Tal  as  a  place  of  refuge,  they 
began  to  work  among  the  people  whom  they  found  there,  and 
for  various  reasons,  which  seemed  eminently  satisfactory,  de- 
termined to  extend  the  area  of  their  field  so  as  to  embrace 
this  mountain  district.  It  was,  of  course,  wise  and  proper 
that  they  should  follow  providential  leadings ;  but  it  did  not 
occur  to  them  that  the  same  or  similar  providential  leadings 
would  again  change  the  borders  of  their  field.  Such,  how- 
ever, proved  to  be  the  case.  At  the  close  of  1864,  when 
Bishop  Thomson  visited  the  new  mission,  and  organized  the 
first  Annual  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  India,  the  borders  of  the  mission-field  were  again  ex- 
tended so  as  to  take  in  Southern  and  Eastern  Oudh,  and  also 
the  mountain  district  of  Garhwal,  lying  between  the  head- 
waters of  the  Ganges  and  Kumaon.  In  connection  with 
this  increase  of  territory,  the  three  new  stations  of  Gonda  and 
Roy  Bareilly  in  Oudh,  and  Paori  in  Garhwal,  were  added 
to  the  list  of  appointments  of  the  Conference,  and  a  mission- 
ary sent  to  each.  The  mission  had  now  a  compact  territory 
embracing  the  two  hill  districts  of  Kumaon  and  Garhwal, 
and  the  ancient  provinces  of  Rohilkhand  and  Oudh,  the  whole 


232  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

included  in  a  triangle,  bounded  on  the  west  by  the  Ganges, 
on  the  east  and  southeast  by  a  line  drawn  from  the  city  of 
Allahabad  eastward  to  the  Himalayas,  and  by  the  great 
snowy  range  on  the  north  and  northeast.  These  additions 
to  the  territory  occupied  by  the  mission  were  made  for  what 
seemed  to  be  clearly  providential  reasons;  but  again  the  men 
on  the  field,  like  their  friends  in  America,  failed  to  perceive 
that  in  coming  days  other  providential  reasons  might  be  ex- 
pected to  arise,  and  that,  great  as  the  task  which  was  then  set 
before  them  seemed  to  be,  the  time  would  come  when  it  would 
seem  as  nothing  compared  with  the  greater  and  grander  op- 
portunities which  God  would  give  them  for  doing  their  full 
share  of  the  great  work  of  bringing  back  a  rebel  world  to 
its  allegiance  to  the  King  of  kings. 

The  field  selected  and  now  occupied  at  important  points 
was  a  magnificent  one  for  missionary  purposes.  It  contained 
a  population  of  about  17,000,000,  all  speaking  the  same  lan- 
guage, and  easily  accessible  to  the  missionary  and  his  agents. 
We  need  not  wonder  that  the  first  pioneers  among  these  mill- 
ions did  not  think  of  enlarging  the  borders  of  their  allotted 
field,  or  adding  to  the  task  which  God  and  the  Church  had 
set  before  them.  The  magnitude  of  that  task  they  were  be- 
ginning to  realize,  and  instead  of  seeing  more  work  they 
were  ready  to  cry  out,  "  Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?" 


OUR  EARLY  MISSIONARIES  IN  INDIA. 

E.  V.".  PARKER.  MRS.  L.  S.  PARKER. 

JAMES  BAUME. 
J.  W.  WAUGH.  J.  M.  THOBURN. 


XVII. 

THE   TASK  IN   ITS  SIMPLEST  FORM. 

IT  is  very  generally  supposed  in  Christian  lands,  even  by 
intelligent  people,  that  a  missionary's  work  among  the 
heathen,  however  trying  and  distasteful  it  may  be  in  some 
respects,  is  by  no  means  difficult.  Nothing  is  more  common 
than  to  hear  it  said  that  gifted  and  cultured  men  and  women 
are  thrown  away  when  sent  to  such  countries  as  India, 
China,  and  Africa.  Ordinary  teachers  of  moderate  ability 
are  supposed  to  be  quite  well  enough  qualified  for  work 
among  people  who  are  almost  wholly  illiterate,  and  in  many 
cases  not  lifted  far  above  the  plane  of  savage  life.  The 
popular  ideal  of  missionary  life  is  that  of  a  good  but  simple 
man,  with  a  faithful  and  devoted  wife,  settling  himself  near 
a  village  of  ignorant  idolaters,  and  teaching  them  patiently 
day  after  day  the  first  elements  of  reading  and  writing,  and 
the  first  principles  which  are  supposed  to  underlie  Chris- 
tianity. Nothing  could  be  easier  or  more  simple  than  to 
teach  ignorant  boys  and  girls  to  read  and  write,  and  cer- 
tainly nothing  could  be  more  delightful  than  to  gather  the 
parents  and  children  together  under  the  wide-spreading 
branches  of  some  tropical  tree,  and  tell  them  of  the  God  who 
rules  on  high,  who  created  the  world,  and  who  watches  over 
all  his  creatures  by  day  and  by  night,  and  thus  step  by  step 
to  lead  them  on  from  one  truth  to  another,  until  they  at 
last  are  enabled  to  grasp  the  story  of  Christ  and  his  salva- 
tion, and  become  humble  and  faithful  disciples  of  the  Lord 
and  Master  of  the  world.  All  this  is  simple  enough  and 
beautiful  enough  ;  but  it  is  purely  a  picture  of  the  imagina- 
tion, and  finds  but  small  place  in  the  missionary's  actual  life. 

235 


236  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

His  work  is  a  difficult  work  at  every  stage — so  difficult, 
indeed,  that  men  and  women  of  brains  and  culture  and  of 
the  highest  devotion  are  needed  in  the  mission-field,  if  they 
are  needed  anywhere  in  the  wide  world. 

The  missionary,  when  he  reaches  his  field,  is  confronted, 
in  the  first  place,  by  the  formidable  task  of  having  to  master  a 
strange  language,  and  not  infrequently  more  than  one  strange 
language.  With  very  few  exceptions,  this  proves  a  difficult 
task  to  the  young  missionary.  Now  and  then  a  man  or 
woman  may  be  found  with  a  special  gift  for  learning  lan- 
guages ;  but  where  one  such  genius  is  found,  ten  others  will 
appear  who,  so  far  from  having  a  peculiar  aptitude  for  learn- 
ing languages,  are  peculiarly  lacking  in  that  gift,  and  to 
whom  the  learning  of  a  new  language  is  the  most  severe  in- 
tellectual task  that  could  possibly  be  imposed  upon  them.  I 
think,  too,  it  will  have  to  be  admitted  that  Americans  have 
perhaps  less  aptitude  for  learning  strange  languages  than 
Europeans.  In  their  own  country  they  hear  little  but  En- 
glish. Around  them,  it  is  true,  are  representatives  from 
nearly  every  European  land ;  but  no  American  makes  any 
effort  whatever  to  master  the  European  languages  for  the 
purpose  of  ordinary  conversation  in  his  own  country.  In 
Europe,  however,  it  is  very  different.  Nothing  is  more  com- 
mon than  to  meet  men  who  can  speak  in  half  a  dozen  differ- 
ent tongues;  and  when  a  young  man  has  learned  even  one 
new  tongue,  the  study  of  language  becomes  to  him  a  compar- 
atively easy  task.  Those  who  have  gone  far  enough  to  learn 
to  speak  in  three  or  four  languages  may  be  expected  to  pick 
up  half  a  dozen  more,  if  the  opportunity  is  afforded  them,  in 
any  part  of  the  world.  The  average  missionary  in  India  is 
able  to  speak  with  comparative  freedom,  at  the  end  of  two 
years,  in  any  Indian  tongue  to  which  he  may  have  applied 
himself;  but  it  takes  long  years  of  patient  study  and  constant 
practice,  to  enable  him  to  speak  with  half  the  freedom  which 
the  average  preacher  feels  in  the  use  of  his  own  language  in 
an  American  pulpit.  A  man  may  speak  in  a  foreign  tongue 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  SIMPLEST  FORM.  237 

with  apparently  great  fluency,  so  long  as  he  keeps  within  a 
certain  range  of  thought ;  but  not  one  missionary  in  twenty 
ever  acquires  so  complete  a  knowledge  of  the  language  of  the 
people  among  whom  he  spends  his  life  as  to  take  up  any 
topic  of  conversation — in  any  department  of  science,  for  in- 
stance— that  may  chance  to  be  presented,  and  carry  on  a  con- 
versation with  the  same  readiness  which  he  would  show  in 
the  use  of  English. 

The  missionary  who  arrived  in  India  thirty  years  ago  ex- 
perienced much  greater  difficulty  in  gaining  access  to  the 
people  than  those  who  come  out  to  that  field  at  the  present 
day.  At  the  close  of  the  Sepoy  Mutiny,  one  of  the  most 
bloody  and  tragical  wars  of  modern  times,  the  people 
throughout  all  North  India  were  left  in  a  state  of  absolute 
submission  to  the  military  power  of  England,  with  a  pro- 
found respect  also  for  the  justice  of  the  English  Government, 
but  at  the  same  time  with  a  certain  prejudice  against  every- 
thing foreign,  and  a  peculiar  fear  of  everything  pertaining  to 
the  Christian  religion.  The  mutiny  had  been  stirred  up  in 
the -first  place  by  designing  men,  who  created  a  panic  among 
the  Sepoys  by  spreading  abroad  a  rumor  that  their  caste  was 
to  be  destroyed  by  the  use  of  cartridges  greased  with  tallow 
or  lard.  When  peace  was  restored,  this,  or  some  other 
cause,  seemed  to  have  left  among  the  people  everywhere  a 
grave  apprehension  that  they  were  to  be  /entrapped  into  a 
profession  of  Christianity  by  some  means,  fair  or  foul.  For 
several  years  after  my  first  arrival  in  India,  I  found  the 
people  of  all  castes  and  classes  under  the  influence  of  this 
fear.  Along  with  this  was  a  deep-seated,  unreasoning,  and 
ignorant  prejudice  against  everything  which  bore  the  name 
of  Christian.  Not  one  in  a  thousand  could  tell  of  anything 
bad  in  the  nature  of  Christianity,  or  give  an  intelligent 
reason  for  opposing  it;  and  yet  the  prejudice  against  every- 
thing bearing  the  Christian  name  was  universal,  and  stood  in 
the  way  of  the  missionary  to  an  extent  which,  in  these  more 
enlightened  days,  can  hardly  be  realized.  The  question  of 


238  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

caste  was,  of  course,  mixed  up  with  this  prejudice  and  fear; 
but  it  by  no  means  constituted  the  sole  root  of  the  trouble. 
The  very  lowest  castes,  and  even  the  out-castes,  dreaded  the 
name  of  Christian.  The  missionary  was  made  to  feel,  as  he 
moved  about  among  the  people,  that,  while  he  was  respected 
because  of  his  race  and  position,  and  perhaps  also  because  of 
his  personal  character,  yet  that  he  was  constantly  shunned 
like  a  leper.  After  I  had  been  in  the  country  several  years, 
I  once  visited  a  village  in  company  with  a  Hindustani 
preacher.  A  number  of  the  more  respectable  villagers  came 
out  to  meet  us;  but  when  they  saw  that  we  were  turning 
aside  to  a  group  of  huts  in  which  some  low-caste  people 
lived,  they  at  once  abruptly  left  us.  When  we  reached  the 
huts  of  the  low-caste  people,  these  also  began  to  shun  us,  and 
we  were  obliged  to  pursue  our  way.  The  Hindustani  preacher 
said  to  me,  with  what  seemed  a  sad  smile:  "The  high-caste 
people  utterly  hold  aloof  from  these  low-caste  folks,  and  yet 
these  lowest  of  all  hold  aloof  from  us.  We  are  less  than  the 
least  among  the  people  here." 

Another  formidable  barrier  which  has  from  the  first  stood 
in  the  way  of  the  missionary  in  India — a  barrier,  too,  which 
is  seldom  expected  by  the  stranger — is  that  which  is  found  in 
the  compact,  massive  force  of  the  millions  upon  millions  who 
are  arrayed  against  the  truth.  India,  it  is  true,  is  divided 
up  by  the  caste  system  into  hundreds  and  thousands  of  dis- 
tinct communities,  separate  in  many  respects  in  their  interests 
and  tastes,  and  yet,  when  the  question  of  Christianity  is 
•brought  before  them,  they  stand  like  a  living  wall  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  truth.  The  popular  idea  of  missionary  work  is, 
that  the  missionary  deals  with  units,  and  that  he  has  nothing 
to  do  but  to  sit  down  at  the  foot  of  a  palm-tree — which,  by 
the  way,  affords  the  least  shade  of  any  Indian  tree — and  call 
some  poor  heathen  to  him,  and  quietly  teach  him  until  he 
persuades  him  to  forsake  his  idols  and  accept  Christ.  Unfor- 
tunately, however,  the  missionary  is  confronted  everywhere 
and  all  the  while  by  a  solid  mass  of  humanity,  pervaded  every- 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  SIMPLEST  FORM.  239 

where  by  an  intense  attachment  to  the  many  forms  of  error 
recognized  in  India,  and  an  unfailing  dislike  and  dread  of 
Christianity  in  all  its  forms  and  phases.  To  segregate  from 
this  mass  one  or  two  persons,  and  make  them  disciples  of 
Jesus  Christ,  is  perhaps  the  greatest  task  which  is  anywhere 
jiii  the  world  set  before  any  Christian  worker.  At  the  outset, 
missionary  labor  takes  this  form.  The  missionary  can  only 
win  converts  as  single  individuals,  or,  at  most,  as  families; 
and  while  we  have  now  reached  a  point  when  the  solidarity 
of  heathenism  is  giving  way  here  and  there,  yet  it  is  only 
after  long  years  of  patient  and  unremitting  labor  that  this 
result  has  been  reached. 

Another  obstacle  which  is  recognized  readily  enough,  and 
often  exaggerated  in  Christian  lands,  but  the  full  force  of 
which  is  not  understood,  is  the  low  moral  tone  of  the  people. 
For  many  years  I  have  avoided  everything  which  might 
seem  to  partake  of  a  denunciation  of  the  morals  of  a  whole 
people.  Long  residence  among  the  people  of  India  has  given 
me  a  feeling  of  friendship,  and  even  affection,  for  them,  which 
makes  it  a  most  uncongenial  task  for  me  to  depreciate  their 
character.  I  have  found  many  traits  in  that  character  to  ad- 
mire and  imitate ;  but  at  the  same  time,  fidelity  to  the  truth 
requires  me  to  say  that  the  average  Christian  worker  in  aqy 
part  of  India  is  confronted  at  this  point  by  an  obstacle 
which,  in  the  same  form  at  least,  seldom  meets  the  worker  in 
Christian  lands.  The  moral  sense  of  the  whole  community  in 
non-Christian  countries  is  dull.  The  conscience,  though  by 
no  means  slumbering,  does  not  respond  to  ordinary  appeals  in 
behalf  of  the  right  or  in  opposition  to  the  wrong.  The  aspi- 
rations of  the  people  are  earthward,  and  the  sinfulness  of  sin 
is  nowhere  recognized  in  the  sense  in  Avhich  evangelical 
Christians  understand  the  term.  The  idea  of  purity  is  re- 
ceived with  limitations;  but  the  word  holiness,  as  used  in  the 
New  Testament,  is  removed  to  a  plane  above  the  ordinary 
conception  of  the  people.  The  religious  teacher  does  not  find 
his  task  a  weary  one  when  he  has  to  instruct  impressible 


240  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

minds;  but  the  case  is  widely  different  when  those  who  re- 
ceive the  lessons  seem  to  listen  for  days  and  months  and 
years  without  the  slightest  change  being  made  upon  the  heart, 
or  the  slightest  conviction  affecting  the  conscience. 

Missionaries  in  India,  as  elsewhere,  while  adopting  every 
form  of  useful  labor  within  their  reach,  generally  give  the 
greatest  prominence  to  preaching  and  education  as  the  most 
efficient  agencies  for  accomplishing  good  among  the  people. 
With  very  few  exceptions,  every  missionary  is  supposed  to 
be  a  preacher.  Lay  workers  are  comparatively  rare,  and 
wrhile  here  and  there  a  professor  in  a  college,  or  a  teacher  in 
a  high-school,  may  be  found  who  seldom  occupies  a  pulpit 
or  lifts  up  his  voice  anywhere  as  a  preacher,  yet,  in  the  main, 
all  missionaries  do  their  part,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  as 
preachers.  Not  a  few  confine  themselves  to  this  one  branch 
of  the  common  work.  Theirs  is  by  no  means  an  easy  work. 
Every  successful  public  speaker  understands  that  his  task  is 
a  light  or  difficult  one  in  proportion  to  the  sympathetic  re- 
sponse which  he  is  able  to  elicit  from  his  audience.  Many 
men  who  have  acquired  a  reputation  for  eloquence  can  only 
speak  successfully  when  they  can  keep  their  hearers  en  rap- 
port with  themselves  as  they  proceed  with  the  discussion  of 
their  subject.  It  is  often  supposed  that  the  orator  stirs  up 
the  enthusiasm  of  his  hearers  and  makes  them  share  his  feel- 
ing; but,  as  a  "matter  of  fact,  it  is  quite  as  often  true  that  the 
audience  puts  the  enthusiasm  into  the  speaker,  and  inspires 
him,  rather  than  is  inspired  by  him.  The  missionary  preach- 
ing to  an  audience  in  India,  however,  knows  nothing  of  this 
kind  of  inspiration.  He  is  supported  and  strengthened  by 
no  responsive  sympathy  from  his  audience,  except,  perhaps, 
on  rare  occasions.  He  feels,  not  indeed  that  he  is  preach- 
ing against  a  dead  wall,  but  that  he  is  constantly  holding  up 
against  an  invisible  but  persistently  opposing  force;  and 
hence  his  work  as  a  preacher  almost  inevitably  wears  out 
both  mind  and  body  much  more  rapidly  than  the  same 
amount  of  physical  or  mental  labor  would  wear  out  a 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  SIMPLEST  FORM.  241 

preacher  in  a  Christian  land.  If  he  permits  the  interruption, 
he  will  be  called  upon  to  answer  dozens  of  questions  in  the 
course  of  an  hour's  discourse,  and  his  attempted  sermon  will 
degenerate  into  a  wrangling  debate,  or  possibly  have  a  more 
disagreeable  ending.  If  he  understands  his  business,  how- 
ever, he  will  avoid  all  manner  of  public  discussions.  The 
average  native  of  India  intends  no  disrespect  when  he  chal- 
lenges an  assertion  made  by  a  missionary  in  a  sermon.  If  he 
is  in  a  public  bazaar,  or  in  any  other  public  place,  he  assumes 
that  he  has  perfect  liberty  to  speak  at  any  time.  The  mis- 
sionary, however,  can  parry  his  attacks,  if  he  so  chooses,  and 
all  experienced  workers  in  India  learn  to  do  this.  Paul  rea- 
soned in  the  market-place ;  and  while  it  is  true  that  the  mar- 
ket-place spoken  of  was  not  exactly  the  Indian  bazaar, 
yet  it  is  probable  that  his  reasoning  partook  somewhat  of 
the  same  character  as  may  often  be  heard  in  Indian  bazaars. 
For  many  years  I  have  felt  that  too  many  missionaries 
fail  by  insisting  too  literally  upon  preaching  in  the  conven- 
tional sense  in  which  that  word  is  used  in  England  and 
America.  Indeed,  the  young  missionary  who  comes  to  In- 
dia should  dismiss  nearly  all  his  ideals  of  religious  work  and 
worship,  and  prepare  to  adapt  himself  to  the  new  exigencies 
which  he  may  meet.  The  word  preach  suggests  to  an  Occi- 
dental mind  the  idea  of  a  man  standing  up  before  an  audi- 
ence, declaiming  with  more  or  less  vigor,  reasoning,  exhort- 
ing, entreating,  and  displaying  in  turn  the  various  phases 
which  are  popularly  supposed  to  belong  to  religious  oratory. 
The  New  Testament  ideal,  however,  is  very  different  from 
this.  The  greatest  sermon  ever  preached  in  this  world  was 
delivered  by  a  Preacher  who  sat  on  the  grass,  and  talked 
with  the  people  who  were  grouped  on  the  grass  of  the  slope 
below  him.  The  second  greatest  sermon  that  was  ever 
preached  was  delivered  by  the  same  Preacher,  as  he  sat  on  a 
shaded  well-curb,  with  an  audience  consisting  of  one  woman, 
and  she  by  no  means  the  most  reputable  of  those  living  in 
the  adjacent  village.  The  discourse  was  completed  after  other 

16 


242  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

hearers  bad  gathered  around  the  place,  just  as  happens  in  scores 
of  instances  in  India,  where  a  dozen  or  a  score  of  new  hearers 
may  come  up  after  the  first  talk  has  been  concluded.  Another 
great  sermon  of  infinite  interest  to  missionaries  was  preached 
by  that  magnificent  evangelist,  Philip,  as  he  was  seated  in  an 
Ethiopian  chariot,  with  an  audience  composed  of  a  single 
hearer.  Paul  preached  a  great  sermon — which,  however,  is 
not  reported  at  length — to  a  dozen  men  in  Ephesus.  And 
thus  it  would  seem  that  the  modern  ideal  of  a  man  standing 
erect  in  the  presence  of  an  audience  seated  in  the  most  or- 
derly and  formal  manner,  and  listening  with  perhaps  more 
good  manners  than  attention,  was  almost  unknown  in  the 
early  days  of  Christianity.  On  special  occasions,. such  as  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  or  in  the  presence  of  the  Jewish  Council, 
when  the  first  martyr  was  on  trial  for  his  life,  great  orators 
delivered  great  sermons;  but  the  rule  was  the  other  way.  In 
India  our  more  recent  experience  leads  us  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  formal  sermon  will  have  less  to  do,  and  the  more 
private  discourse  or  conversation,  as  it  may  be,  will  become 
more  and  more  prominent.  Thirty  years  ago  we  all  preached, 
for  the  most  part,  in  the  bazaars  and  at  the  great  melas,  or 
fairs.  At  that  time  it  was  difficult  to  work  in  any  other 
way.  The  people  did  not  receive  us  privately  with  the  same 
cordiality  which  they  now  show ;  and  we  were  objects  of 
suspicion  and  scorn  to  an  extent  which  is  now  unknown. 
Now,  however,  the  most  successful  workers  are  comparatively 
obscure  Hindustani  preachers,  who  go  and  sit  down  at  the 
doorstep  of  a  native  hut,  or  perhaps  in  a  court-yard  into 
which  a  number  of  humble  little  dwellings  open,  and  talk 
with  the  people,  sing,  if  permitted  to  do  so,  and  possibly  en- 
gage in  prayer  with  them.  The  converts  are  often  won  after 
long  personal  intercourse,  one  by  one,  by  these  workers.  In 
other  words,  our  preaching  in  India  seems  to  be  drifting 
back  more  and  more  toward  the  New  Testament  standard; 
and  yet  there  are  occasions  when  large  audiences  are  ad- 
dressed by  eloquent  men,  with  a  religious  earnestness  and 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  SIMPLEST  FORM.  243 

power  which  remind  us  vividly  of  the  notable  efforts  we  have 
witnessed  on  the  part  of  great  orators  in  America. 

The  popular  idea  of  a  mission-school  is  that  of  a  half- 
dozen  children  of  both  sexes  collected  under  a  thatched  roof, 
and  patiently  taught  the  meaning  and  use  of  letters,  until 
they  are  able  to  read  and  write.  So  far  as  savage  people  are 
concerned,  this  idea  may  be  correct  enough;  but  when  the 
young  missionary  arrives  in  India  he  discovers  that,  instead 
of  teaching  an  alphabet  to  the  children  of  the  soil,  he  must 
first  master  two  or  three  alphabets  with  which  they  are 
already  familiar.  He  is  the  chief  pupil  in  the  school  instead 
of  the  teacher.  The  Hindus  of  Northern  India  use  an  ex- 
cellent alphabet,  which  is  constructed  for  the  most  part  on 
phonetic  principles,  and  which  is  better  adapted  to  its  pur- 
pose, and  more  perfect  in  its  arrangement,  than  the  English 
alphabet.  The  Mohammedans  employ  an  alphabet  which  is 
sometimes  called  the  Persi-Arabic,  but  which  varies  in  its 
form,  and,  as  it  nearly  always  omits  the  short  vowels,  is  diffi- 
cult -to  master.  Then,  when  the  missionary  has  acquired  a 
moderate  use  of  the  language,  and  mastered  one  or  both  of 
the  alphabets  in  use,  he  finds  that  the  Oriental  idea  of  a  school 
is  wholly  different  from  that  with  which  he  has  been  familiar 
in  his  own  country,  and  he  will  probably  spend  a  year  in 
bungling  efforts  to  get  his  school  in  order  before  he  is  really 
prepared  to  conduct,  or  even  superintend,  a  school.  His 
difficulty  does  not  end  here.  Instead  of  finding  little  savages 
who  can  not  comprehend  the  use  of  letters,  he  is  constantly 
meeting  young  men  of  his  own  age  who  speak  English  with- 
out hesitation,  and  many  of  whom  are  equal  to  himself  in 
scholarship.  He  learns,  to  his  surprise,  and  perhaps  to  his 
dismay,  that  if  he  enters  the  educational  field  he  must  pro- 
vide schools  all  the  way  up,  from  those  of  the  most  element- 
ary grade  to  the  full-fledged  college.  The  term  "an  educa- 
tional missionary  "  means  a  great  deal  indeed  in  a  country 
like  India,  and  the  young  men  and  women  in  the  United 
States  who  lightly  dream  of  going  to  India  to  spend  their 


244  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

lives  in  teaching  the  heathen,  would  do  well  to  pause  and 
examine  themselves  to  see  if  they  are  prepared  for  a  kind  of 
labor  which  only  well-educated  people  at  home  would  think 
of  attempting. 

But  the  real  work  of  the  young  missionary  begins  when 
he  makes  his  first  convert.  In  a  moment  a  score  of  questions 
confront  him  to  which  he  has  perhaps  not  given  a  thought, 
but  which  involve  him  in  a  labyrinth  of  difficulties  from 
which  he  at  times  sees  no  way  of  escape.  Christians  in 
America  have  little  or  no  idea  of  the  difference  between  the 
fundamental  and  the  accidental  peculiarities  of  American 
Christianity.  Much  which  they  accept  as  a  part  of  Chris- 
tianity itself  is  in  reality  only  the  outgrowth  of  its  American 
phases.  Christianity  differs  from  all  other  religions  in  that 
it  is  able  to  adapt  itself  to  all  the  nations  and  kingdoms  and 
tribes  of  earth.  But  in  so  doing,  it  changes  its  outward  form 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  and  adopts  or  rejects  peculiarities 
of  the  various  people  who  become  subject  to  it,  as  may  suit 
their  special  character  or  wants.  The  Christian  in  America, 
however,  expects  that  the  first  convert  of  the  young  mission- 
ary will  at  once  become  in  outward  life,  if  not  in  inward 
taste,  the  counterpart  »of  an  American  Christian.  He  ex- 
pects him  to  accept  the  American  Sabbath  in  an  hour,  without 
having  accustomed  himself  to  its  obligations,  and  without  re- 
gard to  the  overwhelming  disregard  of  the  day  which  every 
one  encounters  in  a  heathen  land.  He  expects  him  to  join 
in  public  worship  precisely  in  the  way  in  which  it  is  con- 
ducted at  home,  and  with  a  full  and  hearty  appreciation  of 
everything  connected  with  the  service.  He  expects  him  to 
change  a  hundred  customs,  some  of  them  very  trifling,  and 
some  of  them  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  convert's  eyes, 
without  hesitation  and  without  misgiving.  He  expects  him 
to  adapt  his  appetite  to  new  articles  of  food  and  to  new  modes 
of  living,  and,  in  short,  to  become  a  respectable  Christian 
like  those  usually  seen  in  American  churches.  The  convert, 
on  the  other  hand,  can  not  possibly  comprehend  such  a 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  SIMPLEST  FORM.  245 

standard  of  Christianity.  He  has  never  eaten  beef  or  pork, 
and  his  appetite  loathes  such  food.  He  looks  upon  various 
articles  as  unclean,  but  does  not  dream  that  in  doing  so  he 
is  reflecting  upon  other  Christians  who  use  them  freely.  He 
shaves  his  head  in  whole  or  in  part  as  fancy  or  necessity 
may  dictate  to  him,  and  is  utterly  unconscious  that  in  doing 
so  he  is  giving  himself  an  uncouth  appearance,  which  would 
excite  laughter  in  any  Christian  congregation  in  England  or 
America.  He  takes  off  his  shoes  when  he  wishes  to  show 
reverence  to  a  place  of  worship,  and  kneels  down  before  God 
having  his  head  covered  with  a  turban,  which  is  perhaps 
skillfully  arranged  by  wrapping  thirty  yards  of  linen  around 
his  head.  He  has  much  to  learn,  and  much  to  unlearn ; 
but  the  things  of  importance  to  him  are  not  things  such  as 
those  just  mentioned.  If  the  missionary  is  wise,  he  will 
from  the  very  outset  dismiss  all  thought  of  training  his  con- 
vert according  to  the  American  ideal.  But  he  is  not  always 
wise.  Most  young  missionaries  going  to  a  new  field,  without 
the  experience  of  older  workers  to  guide  them,  are  apt  to 
cherish  the  American  ideal  until  repeated  failures  teach  them 
that  it  can  not  be  realized  in  an  Oriental  country. 

I  am  writing  these  lines  at  a  station  among  the  North- 
ern Himalayas.  A  few  days  ago  I  was  passing  along  a 
shaded  road,  when  my  attention  was  arrested  by  the  once 
familiar  sight  of  a  green  chestnut-burr  lying  on  the  road 
before  me.  It  recalled  old  associations  of  my  youth  and 
boyhood  in  a  very  peculiar  manner,  and  I  instinctively 
looked  up  to  see  from  what  tree  this  unexpected  object  could 
have  fallen.  Above  me  I  saw  chestnut-leaves,  which  I  rec- 
ognized in  a  moment ;  but,  instead  of  a  stately  tree,  I  saw  at 
the  side  of  the  road  a  group  of  stems,  eight  or  ten  in  num- 
ber, growing  from  a  common  root,  and  looking  altogether 
like  a  huge  chestnut-bush,  instead  of  a  chestnut-tree.  The 
sight  was  disappointing  to  me.  It  would  have  pleased  me 
much  if  I  could  have  seen  a  large  chestnut-tree  overhang- 
ing tne  road ;  but  I  was  obliged  to  accept  what  this  Hima- 


246  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

layan  climate  and  soil  presented  to  me.  An  English  chest- 
nut had  been  planted  here;  but  when  it  sprang  into  life  and 
lifted  its  head  above  the  soil,  it  refused  to  assume  the  form  of 
an  English  chestnut-tree.  I  find  the  same  change  in  the  ap- 
ple, pear,  apricot,  and  plum  trees,  which  I  see  in  the  gardens 
around  me.  Each  tree  preserves  its  own  special  character, 
and  yet  puts  on  Indian  peculiarities  instead  of  retaining 
those  of  Europe.  So  it  is  with  Christianity;  we  may  plant 
it  in  India  and  it  will  assume  its  own  peculiar  Indian  phase, 
and  refuse  obstinately  to  adopt  the  outward  appearance  of  the 
Christianity  which  is  found  in  England,  America,  or  Ger- 
many. So  will  it  be  in  China,  in  Japan,  and  in  each  foreign 
country.  We  could  not  expect  it  to  be  otherwise ;  and  we 
ought  not,  and  certainly  need  not,  desire  it  to  be  otherwise. 
The  new  convert  has  everything  to  learn,  and,  however 
sincere  and  earnest  he  may  be,  it  will  require,  in  most  cases, 
no  little  time  to  give  him  the  drill  which  he  needs.  The 
people  of  India  have  no  conception  whatever  of  public  wor- 
ship in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  understood  by  Christians. 
They  never  meet  together  for  prayer,  and  rarely  meet  in  re- 
ligious assemblies  of  any  kind.  The  Mohammedans  may 
sometimes  be  seen  in  large  numbers  performing  their  devo- 
tions at  stated  hours ;  but  these  consist  merely  in  the  repeti- 
tion of  forms  of  prayer,  often  in  an  unknown  tongue,  and 
never  heeded  by  any  considerable  number  of  those  who  utter 
them.  Now  and  then  a  Mohammedan  preacher  may  be  found 
who  addresses  public  audiences;  but  never  after  the  manner 
of  a  preacher  in  a  Christian  church.  Neither  Mohamme- 
dans nor  Hindus  ever  sing  in  connection  with  any  form  of 
public  worship.  The  voice  of  song  is  the  peculiar  heritage 
and  glory  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  Infidelity  in  all 
its  forms,  Mohammedanism,  Buddhism,  Hinduism,  and  every 
form  of  paganism,  seem  alike  pervaded  by  a  strange  influ- 
ence of  some  kind  which  drowns  the  voic.e  of  song.  Prayer 
in  the  Christian  sense  is  practically  unknown,  except  among 
Christian  people.  Hence  the  new  converts  have  to  learn 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  SIMPLEST  FORM.  247 

everything,  so  far  as  worship  is  concerned.  They  learn 
readily  enough,  it  is  true;  but  in  a  country  where  all  have  to 
be  learners,  where  the  teachers  are  few,  where  the  model 
which  is  found  everywhere  in  America  is  not  only  more 
rare,  but  also  apt  to  change  more  or  less,  it  is  no  little  part 
of  the  missionary's  task  to  introduce,  direct,  and  control 
public  worship  among  the  people  who  first  become  Chris- 
tians. 

In  a  few  large  cities  congregations  of  Indian  Christians 
can  be  found  seated  upon  comfortable  benches,  well-dressed 
and  quite  as  orderly,  in  every  respect,  as  similar  congrega- 
tions in  English  and  American  cities.  This,  however,  is  by 
no  means  a  correct  picture  of  the  ordinary  Indian  congrega- 
tion. Nearly  all  missionaries  at  first  try  to  provide  churches. 
Many  of  them  build  in  such  close  imitation  of  similar  build- 
ings at  home,  that  their  structures  seem  almost  grotesque  in 
the  midst  of  their  Oriental  surroundings.  They  at  first  also 
try  to  provide  comfortable  seats,  the  old-time  pulpit,  with 
perhaps  an  American  organ,  with  everything  arranged  accord- 
ing to  the  pattern  shown  to  them  in  their  native  land.  Very 
soon,  however,  every  practical  missionary  is  only  too  willing 
to  give  up  this  vain  attempt  to  reproduce  American  churches 
upon  Indian  soil.  In  the  towns  and  villages,  in  which  the 
chapels  or  other  simple  places  of  worship  are  found,  the  peo- 
ple, for  the  most  part,  sit  upon  the  floor,  which  consists  sim- 
ply of  the  beaten  earth,  covered  with  very  cheap  matting. 
There  may  be  a  raised  platform  at  one  end,  upon  which  the 
preacher  stands,  with  a  small  table  beside  him ;  but  it  is  more 
probable  that  the  place  will  be  wholly  destitute  of  furniture. 
The  people  enter,  for  the  most  part,  in  their  bare  feet.  The 
custom  of  uncovering  the  head  is  becoming  more  common, 
and  is  much  insisted  on  by  some  missionaries.  For  my  own 
part,  I  have  never  attached  the  slightest  importance  to  this 
custom.  The  directions  of  Paul,  which  have  been  so  fre- 
quently misapplied  in  American  churches,  would  create 
much  greater  inconvenience  if  literally  carried  out  in  Ori- 


248  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

ental  lands,  and   should  be  accepted   here,  as  elsewhere,  in 
their  practical  spirit,  rather  than  in  the  misleading  letter. 

The  present  chapter  would  have  to  be  greatly  extended 
if  all  the  difficulties  which  confront  missionaries  in  a  new 
field  were  to  be  stated.  The  mere  mention  of  woman  placed 
in  her  new  position — a  position  higher  and  more  ennobling 
than  anything  she  has  ever  known — opens  a  new  field  of  dif- 
ficulties, which  would  require  much  more  space  than  can  be 
afforded  in  the  present  chapter.  The  whole  subject  will  be 
fully  treated  elsewhere.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  most. per- 
plexing and  difficult  part  of  the  missionary's  work  in  organ- 
izing a  Christian  church  in  a  heathen  land,  and  wisely  ad- 
justing it  to  its  hostile  environment,  is  found  in  con- 
nection with  the  female  members.  To  them  everything 
is  new,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  many  of  them  are  found 
too  timid  for  the  new  duties  and  privileges  which  are  set 
before  them,  while  others  are  tempted  to  take  undue  ad- 
vantage of  their  new  position,  and  to  fall  into  the  same  er- 
rors which  are  so  sharply  rebuked  by  Paul  in  his  epistles  to 
some  of  the  early  churches.  Woman  is  at  her  worst  in  non- 
Christian  lands,  and  hence  it  needs  surprise  no  one  that, 
among  the  first  converts,  it  often  happens  that  she  is  much 
less  prepared  for  her  new  duties  than  her  husband  and 
brothers.  It  thus  happens  that  the  most  bitter  and  persist- 
ent opposition  to  the  giving  up  of  bad  or  doubtful  customs, 
and  the  adoption  of  new  modes  of  life  in  the  family  and  in 
the  outer  life,  comes  from  the  women.  All  converts  are  more 
willing  to  give  up  idols  than  certain  forms  of  superstition, 
some  of  which  are  interwoven  with  the  spirit  of  idolatry 
itself  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  utterly  contrary  to  the  Christian 
idea.  To  sift  carefully  the  habits  and  customs  of  the  people, 
casting  away  everything  which  is  harmless,  and  peculiar  to 
the  customs  and  taste  of  the  people,  is  a  task  which  calls  for 
the  highest  wisdom  and  ripest  experience  which  can  be  found 
in  the  mission-field. 


Chapter  XYIII. 

THE  TASK  IN  ITS  LARGER  PROPORTIONS. 

WHEN  Dr.  Butler,  with  his  band  of  missionaries,  began 
work  in  his  chosen  district,  it  was  impossible  to  antici- 
pate the  proportions  which  the  work  might  ultimately  as- 
sume. Among  all  departments  of  human  effort,  there  is 
absolutely  no  kind  of  work  which  has  such  far-reaching 
results  as  that  of  direct  Christian  labor,  not  only  in  found- 
ing churches  in  heathen  lands,  but  ia  planting  all  manner  of 
institutions  for  the  men  now  living,  and  for  generations  yet 
unborn.  The  little  mission  church  in  India,  Africa,  or 
China  may  prove  the  nucleus  of  a  great  Christian  empire, 
and  the  mission-school  may  grow  up  to  be  a  bulwark  of  an 
enlightened  civilization  for  long  centuries  in  the  future.  The 
work  before  these  missionaries  in  North  India,  even  in  its 
day  of  small  things,  was  laid  out  upon  a  larger  scale  than 
was  at  that  time  customary  in  mission-fields.  It  was  in- 
tended that  no  less  than  eight  missionaries  should  be  located 
in  the  city  of  Lucknow,  and  four  in  each  of  the  cities  of 
Bareilly  and  Moradabad.  Two  other  cities  were  to  have 
three  missionaries  each,  while  the  remaining  stations  cb.open 
were  each  to  have  two  missionaries.  This  distribution  of  the 
workers,  however,  was  never  actually  accomplished.  From 
the  very  first  the  pressure  for  help  in  new  fields  was  felt  so 
acutely,  that  it  was  found  impossible  to  strengthen  the  work- 
ing force  in  the  principal  stations  according  to  the  original 
plan.  As  time  passed,  it  began  to  be  apparent  that  this 
original  plan  never  could  be  executed,  and  that  perhaps  it 
would  "not  be  best  to  attempt  it.  All  missionaries,  at  the 
outset,  naturally  look  upon  the  labor  to  be  accomplished  as 

249 


250  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

\\\  a  peculiar  sense  their  own,  and  do  not  make  sufficient 
allowance  for  the  indigenous  help  which,  under  God's  bless- 
ing, is  to  be  raised  up  on  the  field.  Instead  of  three,  four, 
or  eight  missionaries  in  a  single  station,  experience  led  these 
devoted  men,  in  time,  to  appoint  but  one  man  to  most  of 
the  stations,  and  only  on  rare  occasions  has  the  spectacle 
been  witnessed  of  four  missionaries  living  in  the  same  city. 
It  seemed  to  the  Church  in  America,  as  well  as  to  most 
missionaries  in  India,  that  the  plan  of  locating  twenty-five 
men  in  one  comparatively  small  section  of  the  great  Empire 
of  India  was  an  exceptionally  wise  one,  and  that  such  a  mis- 
sion would,  in  proportion  to  its  extent,  be  among  the  most 
strongly  manned  in  all  the  country.  Relatively,  this  view 
may  have  seemed  correct  enough;  but  when  we  compare,  or 
contrast,  this  force  with  that  which  was  sent  into  the  South 
Sea  Islands  at  the  beginning  of  the  great  work  in  that 
region,  the  Indian  Mission  will  seem  weak  enough.  In 
certain  groups  of  those  islands,  containing  a  population  of 
about  250,000,  fifty-two  missionaries  were  stationed,  and  not 
deemed  too  many  for  the  work.  Those  missionaries  were 
good  men,  and  their  labors  were  abundantly  rewarded.  In 
nearly  every  case  they  were  successful  in  turning  the  people 
from  the  worship  of  idols,  and  giving  them  the  knowledge 
of  the  living  God.  They  ought  to  have  succeeded;  for,  on  an 
average,  each  man  had  only  about  5,000  persons  of  all  ages 
to  whom  to  devote  himself.  In  this  new  mission  in  India, 
however,  the  missionaries  were  distributed  in  the  proportion 
of  one  for  every  680,000;  that  is,  each  missionary  had  a  task 
assigned  him  more  than  two  and  a  half  times  as  large  as 
that  of  the  whole  of  the  fifty-two  men  in  the  southern  seas. 
Instead  of  looking  upon  the  missionary  force  of  twenty-five 
men  as  an  exceptionally  large  one,  it  ought  to  be  understood 
that  a  thousand  workers  would  not  have  been  sufficient  to 
engage  in  the  task  with  the  same  chances  of  success  which 
existed  in  many  of  the  best-known  mission-fields  of  the  last 
generation.  A  force  of  no  less  than  3,400  missionaries 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  LARGER  PROPORTIONS.     251 

would  have  been  required  in  order  to  enter  the  field  on 
the  same  scale,  and  to  carry  on  the  work  with  the  same 
thoroughness  which  was  witnessed  in  the  islands  of  the 
South  Pacific.  When  we  look  at  those  twenty-five  mission- 
aries— and  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Missionary  So- 
ciety did  not  actually  succeed  in  its  attempt  to  put  so  many 
men  on  the  ground — and  then  glance  at  the  mighty  multi- 
tude numbering  more  than  seventeen  millions  of  Hindus  and 
Mohammedans,  we  may  readily  exclaim,  "  What  were  these 
among  so  many?" 

One  part  of  the  task  which,  perhaps,  gave  these  early 
missionaries  at  first  little  concern,  soon  began  to  loom  up 
before  them  in  most  formidable  proportions.  Like  mission- 
aries generally,  they  at  first  had  little  idea  of  what  was  im- 
plied by  the  term,  "  founding  a  new  church."  Their  first 
thought  was  that  of  bringing  the  people  to  Christ,  and 
properly  training  their  converts;  but  in  every  age  and  in 
every  land  a  body  of  converts  means  the  organization  of  a 
church.  This  fact  is  but  dimly  realized  in  Christian  lands, 
and  even  by  those  most  familiar  with  missionary  operations. 
It  is  too  commonly  supposed  that  converts  from  heathenism 
are  simple  creatures  who  require  the  careful  supervision  of 
superiors,  but  who  can  not  be  intrusted  with  responsibility  in 
the  church,  and  who  need  not  be  consulted  in  respect  to 
such  a  step.  People  who  indulge  in  a  fancy  of  this  kind 
might  as  well  assume  that  ignorant  men  and  women  in  non- 
Christian  lands  are  uprepared  to  assume  the  responsibilities 
of  parents,  or  domestic  duties  of  any  kind.  They  forget  that 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  society  in  every  community,  and  that 
there  are  great  laws  of  social  organization  which  will  shape 
themselves  inevitably  according  to  the  influence  surrounding 
the  people.  They  forget  that  it  is  as  natural  for  Christian 
converts  in  China  or  India  to  assume  their  proper  places  in 
the  church,  and  to  take  up,  not  only  the  ordinary  duties  of 
membership,  but  in  proper  cases  the  responsible  duties  of 
official  position,  as  it  is  for  converts  in  Christian  countries  to 


252  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

do  the  same.  It  is  a  part  of  God's  law,  written  upon  the 
hearts  of  all  Christians,  that  they  should  associate  themselves 
together  in  churches,  and  take  up  the  responsible  duties 
which  come  to  them  in  such  a  relationship ;  and  no  greater 
mistake  can  be  made  than  to  neglect  wholly,  or  even  treat 
lightly,  a  subject  of  such  vital  importance  to  missionary  work. 
But  just  here  some  kind  and  well-meaning  Christian 
brother  is  sure  to  rise  and  protest  that  the  missionaries  who 
go  to  heathen  lands  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  organiza- 
tion of  churches,  that  it  is  their  duty  to  evangelize,  and  not  to 
organize,  and  that,  above  all  things,  missionaries  should  leave 
all  their  preconceived  notions,  prejudices,  and,  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, doctrinal  beliefs,  behind  them  when  they  sail  from  their 
native  land.  Such  talk  reflects  more  honor,  perhaps,  upon 
the  goodness  of  the  protester's  heart  than  upon  the  clearness 
of  his  intellect.  Whatever  the  missionary  is,  he  is  not  ex- 
pected to  be  a  fool.  Like  other  Christians,  he  has  a  clearly 
defined  belief  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  he  can  no 
more  lay  these  aside  and  substitute  what  is  called  a  naked  be- 
lief in  Christ,  leaving  his  mind  like  a  blank  sheet  of  paper, 
than  he  can  put  himself  back  to  his  condition  in  infancy. 
Nor  can  he  persuade  himself,  when  converts  begin  to  gather 
around  him,  that  he  has  nothing  to  do  with  their  organiza- 
tion. He  sees  at  a  glance,  and  feels  the  conviction  deep 
within  him,  that  it  is  as  much  his  duty  to  care  for  these  con- 
verts and  to  direct  their  organization  into  a  Christian  church 
or  Christian  churches,  as  it  is  for  him  to  care  for  his  own 
children,  and  direct  them  how  to  use  their  responsibilities  as 
they  increase  in  stature  and  wisdom.  Some  one  has  said  that 
charity  is  the  highest  of  all  virtues,  but  that  this  does  not 
mean  that  she  must  needs  be  a  fool.  It  would  be  a  supreme 
act  of  folly  for  any  sensible  missionary  to  throw  aside  his 
own  experience,  smother,  or  at  least  conceal,  his  own  religious 
views  of  Bible  truth,  and  leave  his  converts  to  flounder  as 
best  they  can  through  the  difficulties  which  will  b^set  them 
in  Bible  study,  and  to  blunder  to  any  extent  that  circum- 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  LARGER  PROPORTIONS.     253 

stances  may  permit,  when  they  attempt  the  difficult  task  of 
organizing  a  Christian  church. 

In  these  days  a  great  deal  of  very  plausible,  and  yet  very 
cheap  and  unwise,  talk  is  heard  about  the  narrow  bigotry  of 
missionaries  who  carry  the  peculiar  theological  notions  of 
Western  Christianity,  and  the  still  narrower  ecclesiastical 
polity  of  their  respective  sects  or  denominations,  into  heathen 
lands.  Every  now  and  then  a  protest  appears,  sometimes  in 
hostile  journals,  and  sometimes  in  the  columns  of  earnest  but 
often  narrow  Christian  periodicals,  against  the  folly  of  trying 
to  reproduce  the  sects  of  Europe  and  America  in  India  and 
China.  The  writers  seem  sincerely  to  believe  that  the  Pres- 
byterians, Methodists,  Baptists,  Anglicans,  Lutherans,  and 
others,  are  striving  with  might  and  main  to  introduce  and 
perpetuate,  not  only  their  respective  systems  of  theology  and 
of  church  government,  but  even  their  very  names,  in  India. 
It  needs  hardly  be  said  that  all  such  criticisms  areas  unjust  as 
they  are  mistaken.  What  such  critics  ask  of  the  missionary 
is,  that  he  should  ignore  his  own  training,  his  own  experience, 
and  his  own  adaptation  to  Christian  work.  A  man  who  has 
been  brought  up  in  a  Christian  land  to  work  in  a  certain  way, 
who  is  familiar  with  a  certain  form  of  church  organization, 
and  who  has  accustomed  himself  to  a  certain  kind  of  armor  in 
which  he  can  best  fight  in  spiritual  warfare,  will  not  lightly 
throw  away  all  these  advantages  when  he  is  suddenly  placed 
face  to  face  with  hostile  forces  of  the  most  formidable  charac- 
ter. A  Methodist  may  not  be  a  better  or  a  wiser  man  than  a 
Presbyterian  or  an  Anglican,  or  a  better  worker;  and  yet  if 
he  has  been  trained  to  work  according  to  the  usual  methods 
pursued  by  Methodists,  and  in  the  spirit  most  cherished  by 
them,  he  will  prove  most  successful  in  his  new  sphere  of 
labor  by  continuing  to  work  as  a  Methodist.  He  is  precisely 
like  David,  when  he  declined  the  stronger  and  heavier,  but 
to  him  more  cumbersome,  armor  of  Saul.  Each  man  fights 
best  when  wearing  his  own  armor  and  pursuing  the  methods 
with  which  he  is  most  familiar. 


254  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Apply  this  to  the  problem  of  church  organization,  and  it 
will  be  seen  at  once  that  the  missionary  only  follows  what 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  the  natural  course,  for  him,  when  he 
proceeds  to  organize  his  converts  according  to  the  plan  which 
commends  itself  to  his  judgment,  and  is  most  in  accordance 
with  the  standards  with  which  he  has  been  most  familiar.  It 
is  true,  however,  he  will  seldom  be  able  to  use  the  machinery 
with  which  he  has  been  familiar  in  his  home-land  in  all  its 
entirety.  He  is  compelled,  as  remarked  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter, to  adapt  it  to  the  circumstances  in  which  he  is  placed ; 
and  if  he  is  a  wise  man,  he  will  have  already  learned  to  use 
only  those  methods  and  those  forms  of  organization  which  are 
sufficiently  flexible  to  be  adapted  to  unexpected  circum- 
stances, such  as  meet  him  in  his  new  field.  He  remains  a 
Presbyterian,  a  Methodist,  or  an  Anglican,  as  the  case  may 
be,  but  remembers  that  he  is  in  a  strange  land ;  and  while  he 
preserves  the  main  features  of  his  own  familiar  system,  he 
does  not  put  it  in  an  iron  mold  which  admits  of  no  modifica- 
tion whatever. 

Adopting  these  views  in  the  main,  Dr.  Butler  and  his  as- 
sociates were  in  a  few  years  brought  face  to  face  with  some 
weighty  responsibilities.  Almost  immediately  they  felt  the 
necessity  of  a  church  organization,  so  fully  fledged  as  to  be 
able  to  meet  every  exigency  as  it  might  arise.  The  author- 
ities in  America  at  first  felt  somewhat  impatient  when  the 
missionaries  began  to  put  forth  their  demands  for  an  Annual 
Conference,  forgetting  that  under  the  Methodist  system  it 
would  be  impossible  to  maintain  for  many  years  a  vigorous, 
growing  mission  in  a  distant  corner  of  India,  without  provid- 
ing for  the  various  emergencies  which,  in  any  country  and 
under  the  best  possible  conditions,  might  be  expected  to  arise. 
For  instance,  a  minister  could  not  be  put  upon  his  trial  with- 
out transferring  the  case  to  America,  which  is  tantamount  to 
saying  that  he  could  not  be  fairly  tried  at  all.  Candidates 
for  the  ministry  had  to  be  admitted  on  trial  into  Annual  Con- 
ferences in  America;  and  their  reception  or  rejection,  as  well 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  LARGER  PROPORTIONS.      255 

as  the  subsequent  step  of  receiving  them  into  full  member- 
ship, would  depend  upon  influences  which  might  be  brought 
to  bear  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe  in  such  a  way  as  to  de- 
feat the  purposes  and  wishes  of  those  on  the  field.  The  or- 
ganization of  an  Annual  Conference,  however,  marked  but 
one  stage  of  a  long  road.  As  time  passed  it  began  to  be  felt 
more  and  more  that  the  existence  of  a  great  church  in  one  of 
the  great  empires  of  the  world  implied,  in  the  very  nature  of 
the  case,  something  very  nearly  equivalent  to  autonomy,  and 
this,  in  turn,  implied  the  construction  of  an  ecclesiastical 
frame-work  which  called  for  the  ripest  wisdom,  the  clearest 
foresight,  and  the  most  profound  devotion  which  could  be 
found  in  any  church. 

At  this  point  another  question  of  the  utmost  gravity  be- 
gan to  present  itself.  As  remarked  in  another  chapter,  the 
idea  of  the  authorities  in  New  York,  when  they  determined 
to  establish  a  mission  in  India,  was  that  of  simply  planting  a 
mission  in  India,  rather  than  for  India  as  a  whole.  Instead 
of  thinking  of  the  great  Indian  Empire,  they  thought  of  a 
vast  Eastern  region  occupied  by  various  tribes  and  national- 
ities, somewhat  after  the  manner  of  America  when  peopled  by 
the  various  tribes  of  aborigines.  To  plant  a  mission  in  an 
Indian  tribe  never  meant  at  any  time  more  than  trying  to 
evangelize  that  particular  body  of  people.  The  Indian  tribes 
of  America  had  no  coherency  among  themselves,  and  at  no 
period  in  their  history  did  they  ever  look  upon  themselves  as 
a  single  people.  In  India  the  situation  is  wholly  different.  The 
people  are  firmly  welded  together,  at  least  politically,  by  the 
power  of  the  Indian  Government,  backed  as  it  is  by  that  of 
the  British  Empire.  Thirty  years  ago  there  was  much  less  of 
coherency  among  the  people  of  the  various  sections  of  India 
than  exists  at  the  present  day ;  but  even  then  the  great  trunk 
railways  which  have  since  been  built  had  been  marked  out, 
and  as  these  were  constructed  the  people  began  to  move  about 
by  thousands,  and  literally  by  millions.  The  empire,  for  a 
generation  past,  has  been  steadily  becoming  more  and  more 


256  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

consolidated.  The  people  are  feeling  more  and  more  that 
they  hold  many  interests  in  common,  and  the  missionary  who 
has  lived  among  them  the  greater  part  of  his  life,  in  many 
cases  discovers,  to  his  surprise,  that  he  has  become  Indian- 
ized  himself.  He  feels  more  interest  in  the  public  concerns 
of  India  than  in  those  of  his  native  land.  He  expects,  in 
many  cases  at  least,  to  spend  all  his  days  in  India ;  and  more 
and  more  he  interests  himself  in  all  that  concerns  the  wel- 
fare of  the  people,  not  only  in  one  particular  section,  where 
he  may  chance  to  reside,  but  in  every  nook  and  corner  of  the 
empire. 

These  influences  led  our  missionaries  at  an  early  day  to 
look  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  comparatively  small  field 
in  which  they  had  been  located,  and  to  anticipate  a  larger 
share  in  the  work  of  making  India  a  Christian  empire,  than 
the  founders  of  the  mission  had  foreseen.  In  earlier  days 
many  attempts  were  made  by  the  leading  missionary  socie- 
ties in  India,  to  parcel  out  the  country  in  such  a  way  as  to 
give  to  each  mission  a  special  field  of  its  own.  All  workers 
were  expected  to  observe  what  are  called  the  rules  of  mis- 
sionary courtesy,  and  not  to  trespass  into  a  province  which 
had  been  taken  up  by  another  society.  This  policy  had  some 
good  features,  but  was  only  defensible  on  the  ground  of  pro- 
viding such  a  division  of  labor  as  would  most  speedily  bring 
all  the  vast  fields  under  cultivation.  Unfortunately,  how- 
ever, this  was  seldom  the  reason  put  forward  for  adopting 
the  policy.  The  real  object  of  its  promoters  was,  in  most 
cases,  that  of  preventing  collisions  among  the  missionaries. 
The  policy  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  proved  successful. 
Many  have  been  led  to  think  that  it  created  more  suspicion, 
and  fomented  more  painful  divisions,  than  it  ever  prevented. 
In  any  case,  the  missionaries,  with  their  advancing  work, 
have  outgrown  it,  and  every  year  it  seems  to  be  felt  more 
and  more  that  the  unwritten  rules  of  comity  which  prevail  in 
Christian  lands  must,  in  the  main,  be  relied  upon  to  work  out 
the  same  results  in  India  which  thev  do  elsewhere. 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  LARGER  PROPORTIONS.     257 

While  most  Protestant  missionaries,  by  their  own  consent 
and  with  the  hearty  approval  of  their  own  judgment,  thus 
fenced  themselves  off  from  large  sections  of  the  empire,  mis- 
sionaries of  two  great  organizations  succeeded  in  planting 
themselves  in  almost  all  the  leading  cities  and  provinces  of 
the  empire.  The  Roman  Catholic  priest,  on  the  one  hand, 
knew  of  no  restricting  boundary-lines.  He  is  found  almost 
everywhere  in  India  to-day,  if  not  as  an  active  missionary, 
at  least  as  an  officiating  priest,  looking  carefully  after  the  in- 
terests of  the  great  organization  to  which  he  belongs.  The 
chaplains  and  missionaries  of  the  Anglican  Church,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  also  found  almost  everywhere,  as  might  be 
expected  in  an  organization  which  is  recognized  as  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  the  country.  In  the  first  place,  the  chap- 
lains occupy  nearly  all  the  large  cities  and  stations.  Then, 
the  Church  Missionary  Society,  a  very  powerful  organization, 
has  its  missionaries  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  while  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  which  usually 
represents  the  sacerdotal  wing  of  the  Anglican  Church,  oc- 
cupies other  fields.  Where  these  three  classes  of  workers 
are  not  found,  it  often  happens  that  a  missionary  of  the  Ad- 
ditional Clergy  Aid  Society  is  stationed,  thus  bringing  four 
classes  of  workers,  but  all  belonging  to  the  same  Church, 
into  the  field. 

When  our  own  work  began  in  India,  Methodism  was 
hardly  known  in  the  empire.  The  English  Methodists  had 
confined  their  labors  to  the  extreme  southern  part  of  the  pen- 
insula, and  not  a  Methodist  minister  or  missionary  of  any 
kind  was  to  be  found  north  of  Madras.  The  great  cities  of 
Bombay  and  Calcutta  had  no  Methodist  preaching;  nor  had 
any  missionary  penetrated  to  any  part  of  the  great  region 
north  of  those  cities.  It  may  be  said,  and  it  may  truly  seem 
to  many,  that  the  mere  absence  of  Methodist  missionaries 
from  nearly  the  whole  of  this  great  empire  ought  not  to  have 
occasioned  either  surprise  or  alarm ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
when  we  consider  the  important  part  which  the  Methodists, 

17 


258  INDIA  AND  AT  A  LA  YSIA. 

as  a  people,  are  playing  in  all  parts  of  the  English-speaking 
world,  and  when  we  remember  that  God  has  raised  up  each 
one  of  the  great  Christian  organizations  of  the  present  day, 
in  some  sense  at  least,  for  a  special  part  of  the  common  work 
to  be  done,  it  becomes  certainly  worth  while  to  inquire  if 
the  Methodists  themselves  had  not  been  somewhat  to  blame 
for  neglecting  their  share  of  the  great  work  to  be  accom- 
plished in  India.  Certainly  no  others  can  be  blamed,  and 
no  other  view  of  the  case  has  ever  been  put  forward.  When, 
therefore,  our  missionaries  in  North  India  began,  twenty 
years  ago  or  more,  to  feel  a  wider  interest  in  Indian  Chris- 
tianity, and  to  ask  themselves  if  it  might  not  be  that  God 
wished  them  to  assume  a  larger  share  of  the  work  to  be  done, 
they  had  no  other  thought  than  that  of  meeting  their  own 
responsibilities  more  fully,  and  helping  all  other  brethren,  of 
whatever  name,  to  hasten  forward  to  the  goal  which  all  were 
alike  anxious  to  reach. 

It  will  be  said  at  once,  no  doubt,  and  probably  with  a 
measure  of  warmth  :  "  But  why  rush  into  distant  regions  be- 
fore you  have  finished  the  task  undertaken  in  Oudh  and 
Rohilkhand  ?  Finish  the  task  in  hand  before  you  attempt 
another.  While  millions  and  millions  around  you  remain 
unevangelized,  why  seek  distant  fields,  where  the  prospects 
are  no  more  inviting  than  in  the  districts  within  your  imme- 
diate reach  ?" 

Many  of  us  in  India  have  been  obliged  to  answer  ques- 
tions of  this  kind  over  and  over  again  during  the  past  twenty 
years.  It  ought  to  suffice  to  say  that  at  no  time  in  the  his- 
tory of  Christianity  have  successful  Christian  workers,  espe- 
cially evangelists,  acted  upon  the  policy  here  indicated.  Bar- 
nabas and  Saul  set  out  from  Antioch  to  go  to  regions  beyond, 
although  only  a  handful  of  the  people  of  that  great  city  had 
been  converted.  They  pressed  on  from  city  to  city,  sowing 
precious  seed,  but  never  in  a  single  instance  waiting  until 
the  task  which  they  had  seemed  to  take  up  was  finished.  It 
will  be  impossible  to  point  to  a  single  instance  in  all  Chris- 


THE  TASK  IN  ITS  LARGER  PROPORTIONS.     259 

tian  history  where  successful  laborers,  especially  evangelists, 
have  tarried  in  one  place  until  all  the  people  were  converted. 
Such  a  thing  has  never  been  done,  and  I  trust  never  will  be 
done,  until  first  the  gospel  has  been  carried  where  its  sound 
may  fall  upon  all  human  ears.  In  fact,  this  cry  of  finishing 
all  the  work  to  be  done  in  a  given  field  before  going  else- 
\\here,  is  identical  in  spirit  with  that  other  cry  which  has  so 
often  been  raised  in  Christian  lands — about  seeking  the 
heathen  at  home  before  carrying  the  gospel  to  those  who  live 
abroad.  The  very  genius  of  Christianity  is  entirely  foreign 
to  any  such  idea.  Its  inspiration  is  that  of  the  angel  flying 
in  mid-heaven,  with  the  everlasting  gospel  to  preach  to  every 
nation,  and  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people.  The  mission- 
aries of  India  will  never  be  fitted  for  the  gigantic  task  which 
God  has  given  them  until  they  rise  superior  to  some  of  the 
scruples  which  have  hampered  their  action  in  the  past,  and 
bring  themselves  more  fully  into  harmony  with  the  spirit  of 
the  gospel  which  they  are  called  to  proclaim. 

In  another  chapter  the  story  will  be  told  of  the  remark- 
able manner  in  which  God  led  us  forth  beyond  the  bound- 
aries of  the  comparatively  small  field  at  first  selected,  and 
by  successive  steps  planted  our  workers  in  nearly  all  the 
great  cities  of  India.  Suffice  it  to  say  that,  as  the  years  have 
gone  by,  one  point  after  another  has  been  occupied  in  the 
regions  beyond,  until  now,  instead  of  having  a  field  carefully 
hedged  in  near  the  source  of  the  Ganges  in  North  India,  our 
workers  are  found  at  many  points  from  Lahore  in  the  north 
to  Madras  in  the  south,  and  from  the  Indus,  and  even  be- 
yond the  Indus,  on  the  northwest,  to  Singapore  and  Borneo 
in  the  distant  southeast.  Instead  of  seventeen  millions  of 
people  to  be  evangelized,  God  has  called  upon  us  to  do  our 
share  in  the  evangelization  of  the  284,000,000  of  India,  and 
the  40,000,000  or  50,000,000  of  Malaysia.  The  task  which 
at  the  first  seemed  large  enough  to  absorb  the  energies  of 
the  whole  Christian  world,  calling  for  a  missionary  force  of 
more  than  three  thousand  men,  has  thus  been  so  changed  as 


200  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

to  give  us,  not  by  any  means  the  whole  of  these  three  hun- 
dred and  odd  millions  to  be  evangelized  by  ourselves,  but 
our  share  of  this  common  work,  which  God  has  committed  to 
all  his  people  of  whatever  name  or  nationality  throughout 
the  world.  Instead  of  a  province,  we  are  thrust  out  into 
the  midst  of  one  of  the  world's  great  empires,  and,  passing 
beyond  its  limits,  we  have  entered  the  gateway  of  what  is 
destined  to  be  the  great  island  empire  of  the  Eastern  seas. 


THREE  INDIAN  PRESIDING  ELDERS. 

HASAN    RAZA    KHAN.  ZAHUR-UL-H  AO.Q.  ABRAHAM    SOLOMON. 


Chapter  XIX. 
THE  FIRST  STAGE  OF  THE  WORK. 

THE  missionaries  descended  from  their  retreat  in  Naini 
Tal  in  the  closing  months  of  1858;  but,  as  has  been  re- 
marked in  a  preceding  chapter,  their  actual  work  may  be  said 
to  have  commenced  with  1859.  The  first  Annual  Confer- 
ence in  India  was  organized  at  the  close  of  1864,  six  years 
from  the  beginning  of  active  work — a  period  which  may  be 
regarded  as  the  first  stage  in  the  history  of  the  new  mission. 
During  these  six  years  the  workers  had  many  lessons  to 
learn,  some  trying  perplexities  and  sharp  trials  to  encounter, 
their  first  victories  to  win,  and,  as  seemed  to  them,  an  endless 
series  of  difficulties  to  meet  and  overcome. 

Each  missionary  at  once  began  the  work  of  preaching  in 
his  station,  either  personally  or  through  the  Hindustani 
helper  sent  to  him.  At  the  close  of  the  Mutiny,  when  peace 
and  general  security  began  to  prevail  throughout  Oudh  and 
Rohilkhand,  a  number  of  native  Christians  drifted  up  from 
the  South,  whither  most  of  them  had  fled  for  safety,  and 
from  among  these  a  few  suitable  men  were  found  to  take  the 
place  of  assistants  in  the  new  work.  They  were  so  few  in 
number,  however,  that  it  was  not  found  possible  to  supply 
even  one  to  each  missionary.  As  compared  with  the  Hin- 
dustani preachers  of  the  present  day  most  of  them  would  be 
regarded  as  men  of  inferior  worth,  but  in  those  early  times 
they  proved  valuable  helpers  indeed.  In  fact,  any  man  who 
was  able  to  speak  the  language  of  the  people,  and  who  knew 
enough  of  Christianity  clearly  to  comprehend  the  object  of  the 
missionaries,  was  invaluable  to  the  strangers  beginning  their 
work  in  a  strange  land.  The  preaching  and  religious  services 

263 


264  IXDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

of  those  days,  however,  were  exceedingly  unpretentious,  al- 
though such  as  only  could  have  been  expected  in  a  day  of 
small  things.  For  the  most  part,  the  missionary  looked  to 
the  bazaar;  that  is,  the  business  street  of  the  cities  and 
towns,  with  its  open  shops  of  every  variety  ranged  along 
either  side.  In  India  the  buying  and  selling  is  nearly  al- 
ways conducted  at  the  door  of  the  shop,  the  purchaser  stand- 
ing in  the  street,  and  the  whole  street  thus  becomes  a  market- 
place in  the  most  practical  sense  of  the  word.  The  mis- 
sionary, if  not  able  to  preach  himself,  would  have  his  Hin- 
dustani brother  by  his  side,  and  perhaps  his  own  part  would 
consist  simply  in  reading  a  few  verses  from  the  Bible,  and 
by  his  presence  drawing  curious  people  together  to  stare  at 
him,  or  to  see  what  the  strange  procedure  was  going  to  be, 
while  the  burden  of  the  preaching  was  left  to  the  native 
brother.  With  few  exceptions,  however,  the  missionaries  of 
those  days  were  able  to  bear  a  more  or  less  important  part 
in  the  work  of  preaching  by  the  close  of  their  first  year  in 
the  country.  In  addition  to  preaching  in  the  open  street,  it- 
was  also  held  to  be  a  sacred  duty  to  maintain  the  customary 
Sabbath  services.  At  an  appointed  hour  a  room  would  be 
prepared,  which,  in  the  absence  of  chapels  and  school-rooms, 
was  apt  to  be  one  of  the  apartments  in  the  mission-house. 
The  audience  almost  invariably  consisted  of  the  family  of 
one  or  two  native  preachers,  or  rather  assistants,  and  the 
servants  of  the  household.  Nothing  could  have  seemed 
more  unpromising  to  an  ordinary  observer  than  such  a  con- 
gregation, consisting  perhaps  of  not  more  than  ten  or  twelve 
persons  in  all,  one-half  of  whom  wrere  present  only  because 
it  was  the  pleasure  of  their  employer  that  they  should  come. 
Nevertheless,  every  such  service  had  its  value.  It  was  a 
constant  witness  to  the  people  that  the  Christian  religion 
had  come  among  them,  that  one  day  in  seven  had  been  set 
apart  for  God's  service,  and  that  Christianity  hereafter 
was  to  hold  a  permanent  place  among  the  religions  of  the 
empire. 


THE  FIRST  STAGE  OF  THE  WORK.  265 

Schools  were  also  opened ;  but,  for  the  most  part,  these 
were  of  the  most  elementary  character.  In  the  course  of  a 
very  short  time,  however,  two  or  three  of  these  schools,  in 
which  English  was  taught,  began  to  make  rapid  progress,  the 
boys  everywhere  being  anxious  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the 
language,  and  their  parents  willing  to  assume  all  risks  of 
their  conversion  in  their  great  hope  to  have  them  acquire 
the  language  of  their  rulers.  It  was  everywhere  seen  clearly 
that  the  only  hope  of  promotion  for  ambitious  boys  must 
rest  upon  their  knowledge  of  the  English  tongue.  All  over 
India,  missionaries  since  the  time  of  Dr.  Duff  have  taken  ad- 
vantage of  this  desire  to  acquire  English,  and  have  thus  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  tens  of  thousands  of  promising  boys  and 
young  men  under  their  influence  through  the  medium  of 
mission-schools  conducted  in  the  English  language.  The 
greater  number  of  the  schools  in  those  days,  however,  as  at 
the  present  time,  were  of  a  very  different  character.  In 
some  stations  it  was  thought  desirable,  if  for  no  other  pur- 
pose, to  maintain  a  little  school  on  the  same  principle  that 
the  Sunday  service  was  kept  up ;  that  is,  as  a  testimony  to  the 
people.  The  missionaries  were  there  to  teach,  and  they 
wished  to  impress  it  upon  the  minds  of  all  the  people  that 
children  should  learn  to  read  and  write.  The  little  school 
virtually  proclaimed  to  those  who  saw  it  that  the  days  of 
India's  darkness  were  forever  past,  and  that  a  brighter  era 
had  dawned  upon  the  land.  At  times  the  care  of  one  of 
these  little  schools,  with  perhaps  five  or  six  little  boys  in  it, 
was  a  little  trying  to  the  patience  of  the  missionary.  He 
himself,  as  a  general  rule,  did  not  do  the  teaching;  but  the 
whole  work  seemed  so  utterly  unpromising  that  at  times  the 
thought  could  not  but  present  itself  that  it  might  as  well  be 
given  up.  No  one,  however,  ever  yielded  to  such  a  sugges- 
tion. The  work  went  on,  each  little  school  slowly  gaining 
in  numbers  and  efficiency,  each  little  Sunday  congregation 
very  slowly  but  steadily  increasing  in  attendance,  and  the 
prospects  very  slowly  indeed,  and  yet  certainly  brightening. 


266  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Here  and  there  a  convert  was  picked  up  from  time  to  time, 
one  of  the  earliest  of  whom  was  a  very  intelligent  Mohamme- 
dan in  the  city  of  Bareilly,  named  Zahur-ul-Haqq,  who  heard 
Dr.  Humphrey  and  his  Hindustani  associate  preaching  in  the 
bazaar,  was  impressed  by  the  word,  and  followed  them  home 
to  make  further  inquiries.  In  due  time  he  was  converted 
and  baptized,  and  after  a  long  term  of  faithful  service  became 
the  first  Hindustani  presiding  elder  in  India. 

Every  earnest  missionary  feels  oppressed  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  his  work  by  the  difficulty  of  reaching  the  people  as 
a  people.  They  come  to  him  as  individuals,  and  now  and 
then  he  wins  a  convert,  but  they  always  seem  like  so  many 
stragglers.  The  missionary  is  made  to  feel  that  he  is  in  the 
position  of  an  attacking  party,  trying  to  make  a  break  in  the 
ranks  of  the  opposing  force,  but  never  succeeding  in  doing 
more  than  picking  up  an  occasional  straggler.  He  can  not 
capture  even  an  isolated  detachment.  In  our  own  case  this 
difficulty  was  experienced  everywhere,  excepting  in  the 
Moradabad  District,  in  Western  Rohilkhand.  In  that  re- 
gion a  class  of  people  called  Mazhabi  Sikhs,  numbering  four 
or  five  thousand,  were  found  in  small  groups  scattered 
through  the  villages.  They  had  come  from  the  Panjab 
originally,  and  were  of  low  origin  as  to  caste,  but  had  em- 
braced enough  of  the  tenets  of  the  Sikh  religion  to  entitle 
them  to  the  Sikh  name,  but  only  as  to  religion.  The  Sikhs 
of  the  Panjab  have  a  double  title  to  the  name  which  they 
bear,  first  as  to  race,  and  second  as  to  their  religious  belief. 
A  large  number  of  low-caste  people  have  embraced  enough  of 
their  peculiar  religious  tenets  to  give  them  a  more  or  less  valid 
claim  to  the  honorable  title  of  the  great  Sikh  people.  The 
word  mazhab  means  religion,  and  the  term  mazhabi  is  simply 
an  adjective  form,  the  whole  meaning  that  these  people  are 
Sikhs  by  religion,  if  not  by  race.  They  themselves  began  to 
come  to  the  missionaries  at  Moradabad,  and  a  few  of  them 
were  baptized  early  in  1859,  or  possibly  even  before  the 
close  of  1858.  The  importance  of  such  an  opening  was  not 


THE  FIRST  STAGE  OF  THE  WORK.  267 

at  first  realized  by  the  missionaries,  although  a  very  practi- 
cal interest  was  taken  in  them  from  the  first.  They  occu- 
pied a  very  low  social  position,  and  large  numbers  of  them 
had  been  professional  thieves,  and  were  known  as  such  at  the 
time  that  our  work  commenced  among  them.  Had  we  been 
wiser  in  our  generation,  and  known  at  that  time  how  val- 
uable such  an  opening  is  to  a  missionary — that  is,  the  open- 
ing of  a  door  not  to  an  individual  or  two,  but  to  a  whole 
class,  or  caste,  or  tribe — we  would  no  doubt  have  seized  the 
opportunity  much  more  eagerly  and  effectually  than  we  did. 
As  it  was,  some  years  went  by  before  we  gained  a  really 
firm  and  permanent  hold  upon  them;  but  in  the  meantime 
some  of  their  boys  and  young  men  had  been  educated,  and, 
having  been  received  as  teachers  and  preachers  into  the  mis- 
sion, began  to  prove  themselves  very  efficient  workers.  By 
and  by  the  work  among  them  spread  still  farther,  until,  when 
the  census  of  1881  was  taken,  the  official  in  charge  reported 
that  the  Mazhabi  Sikhs  had  virtually  disappeared  from 
Rohilkhand.  The  gentleman  in  question  was  not  able  to  ac- 
count for  their  disappearance ;  but  in  the  same  report  called 
attention  to  the  increase  of  Native  Christians,  which  chanced 
to  be  about  the  same  in  number  as  the  decrease  in  the  number 
of  Mazhabi  Sikhs. 

As  remarked  above,  not  a  few  of  these  people  had  been 
professional  thieves.  In  India,  where  the  original  idea  of 
caste  includes  that  of  hereditary  employment,  the  position  of 
a  thief,  whose  profession  is  hereditary,  is  not  looked  upon 
with  such  utter  scorn  as  in  Christian  lands.  Only  the  other 
day  a  writer  in  a  Calcutta  paper  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  some  of  our  missionaries  in  Northern  India  were,  even 
now,  bringing  a  reproach  upon  the  Christian  name  by  bap- 
tizing professional  thieves  and  receiving  them  into  the 
Christian  Church.  This,  however,  is  no  reproach.  For 
years  after  our  first  converts  had  been  baptized  in  the  Mora- 
dabad  District,  they  were  annoyed  by  Mohammedan  officials 
arresting  them  in  the  most  wholesale  manner  after  any  theft 


268  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

had  occurred,  on  mere  suspicion,  and  sometimes  holding  them 
for  days  while  the  case  was  investigated.  Our  people,  how- 
ever, have  outgrown  that  humiliation,  and  for  quite  a  num- 
ber of  years  past  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  arrest  them  in 
this  arbitrary  manner.  It  seems  to  be  forgotten  that  they 
ever  were  known  as  thieves,  and  so  far  from  seeing  anything 
wrong  in  admitting  other  members  of  such  a  fraternity  into 
our  churches,  our  missionaries  would  gladly  welcome  a  thou- 
sand such  men  any  day  if  they  stood  knocking  at  our  doors. 
In  the  midst  of  such  a  community  the  workers  of  to-day  can 
appreciate  the  admonition  of  Paul,  writing  to  the  early 'Chris- 
tians :  "  Let  him  that  stole,  steal  no  more." 

As  converts  began  to  rally  round  the  missionaries,  it  was 
felt  that  several  advanced  steps  must  be  taken.  One  of  the 
first  of  these  was  to  establish  orphanages — one  for  boys  and 
one  for  girls.  The  care  of  the  orphan  is  made  the  impera- 
tive duty  of  God's  people,  in  every  age  and  in  every  land — 
a  duty,  by  the  way,  which  has  been  gravely  overlooked  in 
some  Christian  lands,  and  perhaps  more  so  in  America  than 
in  any  other  country.  The  prosperity  of  the  American  peo- 
ple in  the  past  has  led  them  to  assume  far  too  readily  that  in 
such  a  country  every  one  is  able  to  take  care  of  himself;  and 
hence  the  ears  of  even  good  people  have  not  been  sufficiently 
open  to  the  cry  of  the  orphan  and  the  widow.  In  a  country 
like  India,  however,  where  the  majority  of  the  people  are  not 
only  poor,  but  very  poor,  and  where  Christian  converts  are 
for  the  most  part  drawn  from  the  ranks  of  the  poor,  the  care 
of  the  orphan  becomes  at  once  an  imperative  duty  which  can 
not  be  set  aside.  In  addition  to  this  duty,  however,  it  was 
wisely  thought  that  the  education  of  several  hundred  boys 
and  girls  would  in  the  end  develop  a  class  of  valuable  work- 
ers of  both  sexes,  and  the  result  of  the  experiment  has  proved 
that  this  expectation  was  by  no  means  a  vain  one.  A  great 
famine  occurred  in  1860,  and  large  numbers  of  children  were 
left  to  perish  by  the  roadside,  their  parents  either  having 
died,  or  having  been  compelled  to  forsake  them  because 


THE  FIRST  STAGE  OF  THE  WORK.  269 

unable  to  give  them  food.  Several  hundred  of  these  were 
gathered  into  the  two  orphanages,  and  many  of  them  lived 
to  become  useful  men  and  women,  some  of  whom  are  able 
preachers  of  the  gospel  at  the  present  day. 

At  an  early  period  in  those  days  it  was  felt  that  a  mission 
press  would  be  needed,  and  was  even  then  needed,  to  meet  the 
literary  and  educational  wants  of  the  growing  work.  A  dozen 
of  the  missionaries  pledged  the  sum  of  one  hundred  rupees 
each,  with  which  to  purchase  the  first  press ;  and  Dr.  Waugh, 
then  a  young  missionary  stationed  at  Shahjahanpore,  and 
having  a  practical  knowledge  of  printing,  was  transferred  to 
Bareilly,  and  put  in  charge  of  the  new  enterprise.  This 
press  has  since  been  removed  to  Lucknow,  and  has  been 
greatly  enlarged,  until  it  is  at  present  one  of  the  largest,  if 
not  indeed  the  largest,  Christian  publishing  agency  in  the 
empire. 

The  question  of  finding  employment  for  our  converts  con- 
fronted us  at  the  outset,  and  became  a  problem  more  difficult 
of  solution  with  each  year  of  our  progress.  Most  of  the  con- 
verts were  extremely  poor,  and  in  those  early  days  there  was 
no  Christian  community  into  which  they  could  be  merged, 
and  among  whom  employment  of  some  kind  could  be  found, 
as  would  happen  in  a  Christian  land  under  like  circum- 
stances. The  highest  and  the  lowest  alike  were  excluded 
from  their  respective  castes,  and  subjected  to  a  rigid  process 
of  boycotting,  which  made  it  impossible  for  them  to  continue 
in  their  former  employments,  or,  in  most  cases,  even  to  con- 
tinue in  their  former  homes.  The  mass  of  the  people  in  In- 
dia being  very  poor,  seem  naturally  to  look  up  to  any  leaders, 
religious  or  otherwise,  who  may  chance  to  stand  in  any  rela- 
tion to  them  whatever,  for  support  and  guidance.  One  of 
the  most  familiar  titles  by  which  they  address  Europeans  is 
that  of  "Ma-bap,"  which  literally  means  "mother  and 
father."  For  a  short  time  the  missionaries  were  able  to  find 
employment  for  the  converts,  either  as  domestic  servants  or 
assistants  in  some  humble  capacity,  or  perhaps  laborers  upon 


270  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

new  buildings;  but  in  a  short  time  it  became  apparent  that 
something  must  be  done  on  a  larger  scale  to  provide  for  such 
necessitous  cases  as  they  arose. 

One  plan,  which  suggested  itself  in  the  beginning,  was  that 
of  securing  a  large  tract  of  laud  and  founding  a  Christian  vil- 
lage on  which  converts  might  be  settled.  Quite  a  number  of 
attempts  were  made  to  plant  colonies  on  a  small  scale,  but 
without  success.  In  1862,  Dr.  Butler  having  secured  a  grant 
of  5,000  acres  of  waste  land  in  Northeastern  Oudh,  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  plant  a  Christian  colony  and  found  a 
Christian  village  upon  the  land.  The  soil  was  extremely 
fertile ;  but  we  did  not  understand  in  those  days,  as  we  have 
since  been  taught  by  dear  experience,  that  a  tract  of  fertile 
waste-land  in  India  means  a  locality  in  which  wasting  fever, 
or  some  other  sickness,  marks  the  presence  of  bad  water  or 
pestilential  air.  The  Rev.  E.  \V.  Parker,  then  in  the  full 
vigor  of  his  early  manhood,  was  appointed  to  the  charge  of 
the  village,  and,  with  his  energetic  wife,  made  a  heroic  at- 
tempt to  plant  colonists  upon  the  land  and  carry  forward  the 
enterprise  to  ultimate  success.  A  village  was  laid  out,  and  a 
goodly  number  of  families  settled  upon  the  land ;  but  with 
the  advent  of  the  rainy  season  it  was  soon  discovered  that 
the  whole  region  was  most  unhealthy,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
year  the  missionary  and  his  wife  came  away  in  sadly  shattered 
health,  leaving  behind  many  of  their  converts  sleeping  in  un- 
marked graves.  Some  years  later  a  more  successful  effort 
was  made  upon  a  tract  of  land  which  wras  purchased  near  the 
city  of  Shahjahanpore.  The  place  proved  sufficiently  healthy, 
but  the  ground  was  much  less  productive  than  the  plot  which 
had  been  abandoned  in  1862.  The  enterprise,  however,  did 
not  meet  the  expectations  of  the  missionaries.  It  does  not 
seem  to  be  God's  plan  to  gather  out  the  converts  from  among 
their  countrymen,  but  rather  to  encourage  each  man  to  re- 
main in  the  place  where  the  providence  of  God  has  placed 
him,  and  thus  scatter  the  good  seed  of  Christianity  among  the 
people,  rather  than  plant  it  all  in  one  remote  garden-plot. 


THE  FIRST  STAGE  OF  THE  WORK.  271 

Failing  in  the  attempt  to  gather  the  Christians  together  in 
one  or  more  Christian  villages,  other  attempts  were  made  to 
provide  work  for  them ;  but  these,  in  most  cases,  proved  un- 
successful. For  several  years  a  large  industrial  school  was 
maintained  in  the  city  of  Bareilly,  where  excellent  furniture 
was  manufactured,  and  other  mechanical  trades  taught;  but 
the  Christians  of  mature  years  learned  new  kinds  of  work 
very  slowly,  and,  as  a  consequence,  their  labor  did  not  prove 
very  profitable.  It  was  not  much  better  in  the  case  of  boys; 
although,  perhaps,  with  the  added  experience  of  all  the  years 
which  have  since  passed,  an  attempt  of  this  kind  might  now 
result  more  successfully.  I  can  not  do  better,  in  trying  to 
explain  the  case,  and  the  difficulties  which  we  encountered 
in  these  various  attempts  to  help  the  people,  than  by  insert- 
ing an  extract  from  a  book  written  by  myself  some  years  ago :  * 

"  It  is  among  these  extremely  poor  people  that  most  of  the  vil- 
lage converts  are  found.  A  few  are  better  off,  and  own  oxen  and 
plows ;  but  at  the  outset  the  vast  majority  are  very  poor,  and,  as 
might  be  expected,  one  of  the  first  cares  of  the  missionary  is  to  im- 
prove their  condition.  This,  however,  is  by  no  means  a  simple  or  an 
easy  task.  A  very  little  money  would  make  an  immediate  difference 
in  their  daily  bill  of  fare ;  but  money  alone  will  not  elevate  a  peo- 
ple, and  its  unconditional  gift  paralyzes  thrift,  instead  of  fostering  it. 
Our  first  efforts,  therefore,  were  directed  to  plans  for  securing  better 
employment  for  our  converts,  and  while  their  number  was  few  this 
was  easily  done  ;  but  when  they  began  to  multiply  by  scores  and  hun- 
dreds, it  became  very  quickly  impossible  to  make  special  provision 
for  each  case,  and  we  were  thus  led  to  attempt  various  expedients  in 
the  midst  of  the  people  in  their  village  homes.  The  people  of  India 
rarely  live  in  detached  houses,  but  maintain  the  primitive  village 
system  of  the  earliest  times.  The  whole  country  is  dotted  over  with 
small  villages  or  hamlets,  as  numerous  in  many  sections  as  the  farm- 
houses in  Ohio  and  Illinois,  and  the  land  around  is  divided  up  into 
small  farms,  which  are  cultivated  by  the  more  prosperous  of  the 
people.  The  cultivators  are  the  well-to-do-class ;  but  a  large  number 
of  laborers,  weavers,  shoemakers,  and  other  artisans,  with  a  few  scaven- 


'My  Missionary  Apprenticeship,"  pp.  220-226. 


272  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

gers,  may  be  found  in  every  village.  Our  problem  was  that  of  tak- 
ing people  belonging  to  this  poorest  class,  and  elevating  them  to  a 
position  of  comparative  comfort,  in  which  their  improvement  would 
be  brought  within  the  range  of  possibility.  The  first  and  most  ob- 
vious plan  was  that  of  securing  land  for  them  to  cultivate ;  and  some 
fifteen  years  ago  we  were  constantly  busying  our  heads  with  plans  for 
getting  possession  of  a  village  in  which  a  settlement  of  Christians 
could  be  formed.  One  such  attempt  in  the  mission  has  proved  suc- 
cessful, but  other  efforts  signally  failed.  A  year  or  two  before  my 
arrival  in  Moradabad  the  missionaries  had  rented  a  village,  and,  at 
their  ojrn  risk,  had  gathered  together  some  Christians  as  cultivators; 
but  the  experiment  ended  in  serious  loss  to  the  missionaries,  without 
any  tangible  gain  to  the  Christians. 

"  It  was  next  determined  to  try  some  plan  which  would  make  it 
possible  for  the  people  to  help  themselves,  without,  however,  spoiling 
them  by  taking  all  financial  responsibility  off  their  shoulders.  Ac- 
cordingly, an  Industrial  Association  was  formed,  with  a  capital  of 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  rupees,  held  in  shares  of  ten  rupees  each. 
A  large  number  of  the  better  class  of  native  Christians  were  induced 
to  take  shares,  and  the  experiment  was  inaugurated  with  great  en- 
thusiasm. The  plan  was  to  give  a  small  advance  of  money,  on  ap- 
proved security,  to  enable  a  weaver  to  buy  his  yarn  in  advance,  on 
better  terms  than  when  he  purchased  on  the  security  of  the  cloth; 
to  enable  the  cultivator  to  purchase  seed,  or  oxen,  or  a  plow,  so  as  to 
get  in  his  crops  on  terms  which  would  not  be  ruinous  to  him ;  and 
to  help  the  common  laborer  to  buy  a  cart,  or  some  tools,  or  to  make 
some  other  petty  investment  which  would  give  him  remunerative  em- 
ployment. The  presiding  elder  was  made  business  manager  of  the 
association — not  because  this  seemed  a  fitting  arrangement,  but  be- 
cause it  was  found  necessary  in  order  to  give  the  people  confidence 
in  the  undertaking.  Unfortunately  for  me,  this  organization  had 
been  made  just  before  the  care  of  the  district  fell  upon  my  shoulders,^ 
and  one  of  the  most  perplexing  of  my  duties  was  that  of  looking  after 
the  many  little  investments  which  had  been  made,  and  trying  at  once 
to  save  the  money  from  waste  and  the  labor  of  the  people  from 
failure. 

"  The  experiment  was  not  successful.  With  very  few  exceptions 
the  people  were  found  too  weak  in  character,  too  much  like  impa- 
tient children,  to  bear  any  sudden  improvement  in  fortune.  Those 
who  took  advances  for  the  purchase  of  seed  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  to  turn  the  grain  into  bread  before  the  time  of  sowing 


THE  FIRST  STAGE  OF  THE  WORK.  273 

came  around.  The  weavers  did  well  for  a  time;  but  the  temptation 
to  buy  dainty  kinds  of  food  instead  of  cotton  yarn  overcame  them, 
and  in  due  time  I  found  that  their  prosperity  was  leading  them  into 
debt.  A  huckster  did  well  for  a  month  or  two;  but  in  spite  of  all 
warnings  and  injunctions,  he  would  sell  on  credit,  and  soon  he  had 
empty  baskets,  with  nothing  to  show  for  them  but  worthless  bills. 
Two  men  bought  carts  and  oxen,  and  were  able  to  earn  about  twenty 
cents  a  day  above  expenses  by  haul  ing  goods  between  Moradabad  and 
the  Ganges.  This  was  regarded  as  a  splendid  opening,  and  the  for- 
tune of  the  two  enterprising  men  was  regarded  as  made  for  life;  but 
their  brilliant  prospects  quite  turned  their  shallow  heads,  and  the  old 
snare  of  making  haste  to  be  rich  proved  fatal  to  them  both.  They 
would  not  give  their  oxen  enough  to  eat ;  they  drove  them  too  fast 
and  too  far  in  a  day;  they  cut  their  feet  by  making  them  draw  the 
carts  over  the  rugged  lumps  of  limestone  with  which  the  middle  of 
the  road  was  macadamized,  and  they  injured  the  wooden  wheels  of 
their  carts  in  the  same  way.  The  result  was,  that  in  less  than  a 
month  the  cart  and  oxen  had  been  sold,  and  the  two  enterprising  men 
were  bankrupt.  But  I  need  not  go  on  with,  the  story  of  each  case 
of  experiment  and  failure.  The  end  came  soon.  The  affairs  of  the 
association  were  wound  up  without  any  loss  to  the  native  members, 
and  with  the  profit  of  a  most  valuable  lesson  to  the  missionary 
manager. 

"'But  had  the  people  no  principle  of  honesty?'  asks  some  as- 
tonished reader.  Yes;  they  were  honest  after  their  manner;  but  to 
put  money  in  their  hands  under  such  conditions,  and  expect  them  to 
deal  with  it  as  men  of  the  business  world  are  expected  to  do,  was 
like  giving  a  plate  of  cherries  to  a  dozen  children  five  or  six  years 
ofr.age,  and  expecting  them  to  play  with  them  all  day  long  without 
putting  a  single  cherry  in  their  mouths.  The  vast  majority  of  these 
simple  villagers  are  the  merest  children  on  some  sides  of  their  char- 
acter, although  old  enough  in  many  other  respects.  They  can  not 
be  elevated  in  a  day,  or  a  month,*  or  a  year,  and  my  further  experi- 
ments convinced  me  fully  that  the  efforts  of  the  missionary  toward 
the  material  improvement  of  the  people  must  be  of  the  most  indirect 
kind.  After  winding  up  the  association,  I  next  attempted  to  gather 
together  a  half-dozen  lads  and  teach  them  a  trade.  An  English 
engineer  kindly  gave  me  his  assistance,  and  offered  to  provide  a  place 
among  his  men  lor  them  to  learn  the  trade  of  bricklaying.  In  six 
months  they  could  be  taught  enough  to  enable  them  to  earn  good 
wages ;  but  they  had  not  the  patience  to  wait,"and  after  a  few  weeks 

18 


274  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

of  discontented  labor  they  threw  down  their  tools  and  left.  Mean- 
while a  serious  famine  was  impending,  and  many  of  our  Christians 
were  upon  the  very  verge  of  absolute  starvation.  Determined  to  ex- 
haust my  utmost  efforts  in  trying  to  better  their  condition,  I  secured 
a  contract  for  forty  men  to  work  in  a  brick-yard.  The  work  was  not 
hard,  the  wages  were  the  best  any  one  among  them  had  ever  earned, 
and  to  protect  them  from  any  annoyance  or  unfair  treatment,  a  reso- 
lute Christian  overseer  was  placed  over  them.  All  went  well  for  two 
or  three  days ;  but  as  soon  as  their  stomachs  were  well  filled,  and  they 
had  a  little  surplus  money  in  hand,  they  became  insubordinate,  made 
unreasonable  demands,  and  finally  left  in  a  body  and  went  back  to 
their  village  homes. 

"At  last,  however,  I  was  able  to  do  a  little  among  the  Bashta 
converts,  of  whom  mention  is  made  in  the  last  chapter.  Zahur-ul- 
Haqq,  who  had  warmly  seconded  all  the  efforts  which  ended  in  fail- 
ure, was  the  first  to  perceive  the  weak  spot  in  the  whole  policy.  One 
day  he  said  to  me:  'If  we  wish  to  do  these  people  any  good,  your 
hand  must  not  be  seen  in  what  is  done.  They  think  your  money 
can  never  be  exhausted,  and  that  there  can  be  no  failure  while  you 
stand  behind,  and  hence  they  are  reckless.  Whatever  is  done  must 
be  done  through  their  own  brethren.  Let  me  put  a  little  money  in 
the  hands  of  the  two  head  men  at  Bashta,  and  I  will  take  security 
in  our  way  by  taking  brass  utensils  belonging  to  them,  and  keeping 
them  till  the  money  is  repaid.  They  will  look  after  it  as  we  can  not, 
and  no  one  will  ever  know  that  you  have  anything  to  do  in  the 
matter.'  A  small  beginning  was  made  in  this  way,  and  it  proved 
entirely  successful.  Some  families  were  put  in  the  way  of  helping 
themselves,  and  they  have  gone  on  and  prospered  ever  since,  and  the 
condition  of  the  whole  community  is  said  to  be  steadily  improving. 

"  Miss  Ellice  Hopkins  has  well  said,  in  her  admirable  little  book, 
'  Work  Among  Working-men,'  that  it  is  not  poverty  that  keeps  the 
lowest  classes  from  rising,  but  sin.  We  may  help  these  very  poor 
village  Christians  in  many  ways,  and  ought  to  do  so  in  every  pos- 
sible way;  but,  after  all,  the  only  way  of  lifting  them  up  into  a  new 
social  life  is  to  put  the  elements  of  such  a  life  into  them.  When 
they  begin  to  live  the  Christ-life  in  the  low  depths  of  their  present 
poverty,  they  will  rise  as  if  by  the  power  of  a  natural  law.  No 
artificial  method  will  materially  affect  their  condition.  They  must 
be  lifted  up  by  the  natural  laws  of  growth,  and  ou»  first  care  must 
be  to  implant  the  elements  of  life  and  growth  within  them." 


I 

1860 

33 

t 

1861  .... 

96 

I 

1862    .  .  . 

89 

i 

1863  .... 

121 

I 

1864. 

.117 

THE  FIRST  STAGE  OF  THE  WORK.  275 

Year  by  year  the  new  mission  strengthened  its  position, 
while  its  converts  increased  in  numbers  and  advanced  in 
grace  and  knowledge.  The  progress  made,  if  not  rapid,  was 
at  least  steady  and  healthy.  The  following  statistics  will  in- 
dicate the  rate  of  increase  during  the  first  six  years : 

Members.       Probationers.     Total. 

December,  1859, 11  32  43 

34  67 

82  178 

97  186 

66  187 

92  209 

These  figures  do  not  tell  the  whole  story  of  these  six 
years  of  hard  work  and  oppressive  anxiety.  The  baptism 
of  six  converts  in  those  days  stirred  the  hearts  of  the  workers 
more  than  the  baptism  of  six  hundred  does  now,  and  when 
they  began  to  number  their  Hindustani  brethren  and  sisters 
by  the  hundred,  it  seemed  indeed  as  if  the  seed  sown  by 
them  was  springing  up,  and  giving  promise  of  a  mighty 
harvest  in  the  years  to  come. 

When  the  General  Conference  of  1864  met  in  Philadel- 
phia, an  earnest  memorial  was  presented  from  the  India  Mis- 
sion, asking  for  the  organization  of  an  Annual  Conference 
in  their  field.  The  matter  had  been  discussed  with  much 
freedom  in  the  papers,  and,  although  the  leaders  of  that  day 
hesitated  to  grant  what  seemed  to  them  a  premature  request, 
yet  it  was  felt  that  something  must  be  done.  Up  to  that 
time  no  Annual  Conference  with  full  powers  had  been  or- 
ganized in  any  foreign  country,  and  the  creation  of  such  an 
ecclesiastical  body  was  looked  upon  as  a  future  and  some- 
what distant  contingency.  When  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  proposal,  there  seemed  a  general  disposition  to  shrink 
from  committing  so  great  a  responsibility  to  a  small  body  of 
missionaries  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe,  especially  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  recent  converts  from  heathenism  would 
probably  be  admitted  into  the  body,  and  in  due  time  form  a 


276  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

majority  of  its  membership.  After  a  brief  discussion,  the 
petition  of  the  missionaries  was  granted,  but  with  the  im- 
portant reservation  that  the  Conference  should  only  exercise 
its  functions  with  the  consent  of  the  Bishop  presiding.  This 
action  created  no  little  stir  in  the  mission-field,  and  was  re- 
sented by  the  missionaries  with  a  warmth  which  astonished 
their  friends  at  home,  and  which  even  at  this  late  day  may,  in 
the  eyes  of  many  candid  persons,  seem  to  have  been  unreason- 
able ;  but  those  missionaries  were  building  more  wisely  than 
they  knew.  Subsequent  events  have  clearly  shown  that  the 
policy  which  they  advocated  was  the  right  one.  It  was 
God's  plan,  and  in  fact  the  only  plan  which  was  at  all  feasible 
if  the  foreign  missions  of  the  Church  were  to  prove  successful. 
In  each  country  the  Churches  should  be  placed  upon  such  a 
basis  that  they  can  administer  their  own  interests  freely,  not 
by  a  kind  of  irregular  sufferance,  but  under  their  own  direct 
authority,  and  with  the  same  freedom  which  every  Church 
accords  to  its  members  in  every  part  of  the  world. 

The  creation  of  this  Annual  Conference  in  India,  by 
which  each  missionary  and  each  native  member  of  the  Con- 
ference was  clothed  with  the  same  rights  and  privileges 
which  appertain  to  every  minister  of  the  Church  in  the 
United  States,  was  the  establishment  of  a  great  principle 
which  has  proved  invaluable  to  the  missionaries  in  other 
parts  of  the  wrorld.  The  misgivings  with  which  the  measure 
was  at  first  viewed,  have  entirely  disappeared.  For  a  few 
years,  it  is  true,  it  was  felt  by  most  of  those  in  authority  that 
the  operations  of  the  Missionary  Board  in  New  York  were 
somewThat  hampered  by  the  creation  of  ecclesiastical  bodies, 
empowered  with  all  the  functions  of  Annual  Conferences,  in 
the  various  mission-fields.  This  was  true  enough ;  but  the 
objection  weighed  as  nothing  when  put  in  the  balance  against 
the  necessity  for  a  healthy  and  normal  development  of  Chris- 
tian Churches  among  the  converts  gathered  in  distant  lands. 
In  due  time  other  Annual  Conferences  were  created,  while 
the  two  Mission  Conferences  which  had  previously  existed 


THE  FIRST  STAGE  OF  THE  WORK.  277 

were  clothed  with  the  full  powers  accorded  to  the  organiza- 
tion in  India.  The  surviving  missionaries  who  bore  a  part 
in  the  controversy  of  that  period  do  not,  perhaps,  look  back 
with  unraingled  satisfaction  upon  all  they  said  and  did ;  for 
in  the  heat  of  controversy,  missionaries,  especially  in  their 
more  youthful  days,  will  sometimes  write  unadvisedly  with 
their  pen,  as  well  as  speak  unadvisedly  with  their  lips.  Hap- 
pily, however,  the  disagreeable  features  of  all  such  contro- 
versies are  speedily  forgotten,  and  the  good  results  achieved 
stand  out  as  permanent  monuments  of  whatever  measure  oi 
wisdom,  piety,  and  good  sense  those  interested  may  have 
possessed.  The  little  Conference  organized  in  India  with 
seventeen  members  was  the  first  of  the  great  sisterhood  of 
Conferences  scattered  over  the  world,  all  of  which  are  doing 
a  good  work,  and  helping  the  toilers  in  their  several  fields 
to  conserve  the  invaluable  interests  which  God  commits  into 
their  hands.  Had  the  appeal  for  the  organization  of  this 
Conference  failed,  and  the  old  policy  been  perpetuated,  be- 
yond a  doubt  the  work  in  India  would  have  been  seriously 
retarded,  and  never  would  have  attained  anything  like  the 
colossal  proportions  which  it  seems  destined  to  assume  be- 
fore many  years  shall  have  passed. 

Bishop  Thomson,  soon  after  his  election  to  the  episcopal 
office,  visited  India  and  China;  and  on  his  way  eastward  or- 
ganized at  Lucknow,  on  December  6, 1864,  the  India  Annual 
Conference.  He  was  admirably  adapted  for  the  difficult  and 
delicate  work  assigned  him,  and  perhaps  more  than  any  other 
Bishop  who  has  ever  since  visited  India,  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  ecclesiastical  structure  which  has  since  been  steadily 
rising  in  larger  and  better  defined  proportions.  By  the 
earnest  advice  of  Bishop  Thomson,  the  missionaries  voted  to 
enlarge  their  field,  as  mentioned  in  another  chapter,  by  plant- 
ing a  mission  in  the  province  of  Garhwal,  another  at  Gonda 
in  Eastern  Oudh,  and  a  third  at  Roy  Bareilly  in  Southern 
Oudh.  By  this  action,  the  field  first  chosen  by  Dr.  Butler 
was  extended  so  as  to  include  the  whole  of  Oudh,  and  also 


278  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

the  additional  district  of  Garhvval.  At  this  point  the  open- 
ing era  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  mission  in  India  reaches 
a  fitting  close. 

Upon  the  organization  of  the  new  mission  into  an  An- 
nual Conference,  Dr.  Butler  felt  that  the  special  work  for 
which  he  had  been  called  to  India  was  accomplished,  and  ac- 
•  cordingly  resigned  his  position  and  returned  to  America. 
Both  labors  and  honors  awaited  him  there.  He  filled  im- 
portant positions  for  several  years,  and  was  then  sent  to 
Mexico  to  repeat  the  work  which  he  had  done  in  India;  and 
after  seeing  a  mission  planted,  and  an  Annual  Conference  or- 
ganized in  that  country,  he  again  returned  to  his  New  Eng- 
land home,  where  he  still  lives  in  quiet  retirement,  enjoying 
the  love  and  esteem  of  the  Church  in  full  and  rich  measure. 
He  has  won  a  prominent  place  among  the  most  illustrious 
Methodist  leaders  of  his  generation ;  and  long  after  he  shall 
have  rested  from  his  labors,  his  works  will  follow  him  in 
abundant  measure  on  both  sides  of  the  globe. 


XX. 

THE  SECOND  STAGE  OF  PROGRESS. 

AT  the  beginning  of  1865  the  missionaries  found  them- 
selves more  fully  equipped  for  their  great  task  than  they 
had  previously  been,  and  entered  upon  their  work  with  new 
hope,  and  with  all  the  ardor  and  enthusiasm  of  youthful  mis- 
sionaries. They  were  all  still  comparatively  young.  They 
had  spent  just  long  enough  time  on  the  field  to  make  them 
appreciate  their  responsibilities,  as  well  as  their  opportunities, 
and  had  achieved  sufficient  success  to  inspire  them  with  new 
confidence  for  the  future.  The  organization  of  their  An- 
nual Conference  as  an  ecclesiastical  body  had  very  naturally 
made  them  realize  somewhat  vividly  the  momentous  charac- 
ter of  the  work  which  they  were  undertaking.  The  enlarge- 
ment of  the  field,  also,  by  the  addition  of  three  new  stations, 
each  representing  a  large  tract  of  country  and  a  very  large 
mass  of  humanity,  inspired  them  anew  with  that  constantly 
expanding  feeling  of  Christian  love  for  a  perishing  world 
which  is  borrowed  by  personal  contact  with  Him  who  died 
for  mankind,  and  which  should  always  prove  the  great  mo- 
tive power  in  the  missionary  enterprise.  Every  Christian, 
if  at  all  alive  to  his  responsibilities,  and  in  sympathy  with 
his  Master,  will  feel  constrained  by  the  love  of  Christ ;  but 
the  missionary,  above  all  men,  should  feel  that  this  love  is 
wide  enough  and  deep  enough  to  embrace  whole  tribes  and 
kindreds  and  nations,  and,  if  need  be,  worlds. 

Among  the  three  new  stations  occupied  at  that  time, 
one — namely,  Paori — was  situated  among  the  lower  Hima- 
layas, eight  days'  journey  from  Naini  Tal,  and  four  days' 
journey  from  the  point  where  the  nearest  road  from  the 

279 


280  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

plains  reached  the  foot  of  the  mountains.  The  station  itself 
was  about  a  mile  from  the  residence  and  court  of  the  En- 
glish magistrate  in  charge  of  the  province  of  Garhwal ;  but 
this  official,  being  obliged  to  travel  from  place  to  place,  was 
not  often  found  in  his  own  home.  Garhwal  was  formerly  a 
large  mountain  district,  situated  on  both  sides  of  the  Upper 
Ganges;  but  early  in  the  present  century,  when  it  was  taken 
from  the  Nepalese,  the  part  lying  east  of  the  Ganges  was  ap- 
propriated by  the  Indian  Government,  while  the  remainder 
was  set  apart  as  an  independent  native  State,  and  a  Hindu 
Raja  placed  upon  the  throne.  In  this  way  the  province  of 
Kumaon,  with  that  part  of  Garhwal  retained  by  the  British, 
was  made  a  compact  mountain  district,  lying  between  the 
Ganges  and  the  head-waters  of  the  great  River  Gogra.  In 
area,  Kumaon  contains  about  7,000  square  miles,  and 
Garhwal  5,500.  The  population  of  the  former  is  about  600,- 
000,  and  of  the  latter  400,000.  As  explained  in  a  previous 
chapter,  this  mountain  region  is  immediately  south  of  the  great 
snowy  range  of  the  Himalayas,  and  is  composed  throughout 
of  high  and,  in  many  places,  rugged  mountains,  with  occa- 
sionally a  fertile  valley  of  moderate  width  between  them; 
but  more  frequently  with  very  narrow  valleys,  and  often 
with  none  at  all.  The  first  range  of  the  snowy  mountains  is 
included  within  British  territory,  the  water-shed  of  this  region 
lying  for  the  most  part  to  the  north  of  these  snowy  peaks. 
The  scenery  throughout  both  of  these  districts  is  the  grandest 
to  be  found  in  the  world.  Garhwal  excels  Kumaon  some- 
what in  the  possession  of  the  highest  and  most  imposing  of 
these  gigantic  snowy  peaks.  I  can  not  do  better,  in  trying 
to  convey  to  the  reader  even  an  imperfect  idea  of  these  great 
mountains,  than  to  quote  from  Sir  John  Strachey,  who,  in 
his  earlier  days,  spent  many  years  in  Kumaon  and  Garhwal : 

"  The  mere  fact  that  the  ranges  of  the  Himalayas  are  often  twice 
as  high  as  those  of  the  Alps,  gives  no  idea  of  their  relative  magni- 
tude. You  might  almost  as  reasonably,  when  the  Scotch  or  Welsh 
hills  are  white  with  snow,  compare  them  with  Mont  Blanc  and  Monte 


THE  SECOND  STAGE  OF  PROGRESS.  281 

Rosa,  as  compare  anything  in  the  Alps  with  Nanda  Devi  and  Trisul. 
If,  preserving  the  form  of  its  great  obelisk,  you  could  pile  the  Matter- 
horn  on  the  Jungfrau,  you  would  not  reach  the  highest  summits  of 
the  highest  Himalaya,  and  would  have  a  mountain  less  wonderful 
than  the  astonishing  peak  of  Dunagiri. 

"Among  earthly  spectacles  I  can  not  conceive  it  possible  that  any 
can  surpass  the  Himalaya,  as  I  have  often  seen  it  at  sunset,  on  an 
evening  in  October,  from  the  ranges  thirty  or  forty  miles  from  the 
great  peaks.  One  such  view  in  particular — that  from  Binsar  in  Ku- 
maon — stands  out  vividly  in  my  remembrance.  This  mountain  is 
8,000  feet  high,  covered  with  oak  and  rhododendron.  Towards  the 
north  you  look  down  over  pine-clad  slopes  into  a  deep  valley,  where, 
6,000  feet  below,  the  Sarju  runs  through  a  tropical  forest.  Beyond 
the  river  it  seems  to  the  eye  as  if  the  peaks  of  perpetual  snow  rose 
straight  up,  and  almost  close  to  you,  into  the  sky.  From  the  bottom 
of  the  valley  to  the  top  of  Nanda  Devi  you  see  at  a  glance  almost 
24,000  feet  of  mountain.  The  stupendous  golden  or  rose-colored 
masses  and  pinnacles  of  the  snowy  range  extend  before  you  in  un- 
broken succession  for  more  than  250  miles,  filling  up  a  third  part  of 
the  visible  horizon,  while  on  all  other  sides,  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach,  stretch  away  the  red  and  purple  ranges  of  the  lower  mountains. 
'In  a  hundred  ages  of  the  gods,'  writes  one  of  the  old  Sanskrit  poets, 
'  I  could  not  tell  you  of  the  glories  of  Himachal.' " 

It  is  true  that  the  great  peaks  ot  Mount  Everest  and 
Kinchinjunga  lie  far  to  the  southeast  of  this  region;  but, 
apart  from  a  few  of  those  notable  peaks,  the  scenery  of  the 
Eastern  Himalaya  is  not  equal  to  that  of  Kumaon  and 
Garhwal.  Lying  for  the  most  part  in  the  latter  province,  is 
a  section  of  mountain  landscape  about  thirty  miles  square, 
within  which  no  less  than  thirty-three  peaks  are  found  rising 
to  a  height  of  more  than  20,000  feet,  while  four  of  the  num- 
ber rise  above  23,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The 
reader  in  America  can  never  comprehend  what  these  figures 
mean,  and  even  when  brought  face  to  face  with  this  stupen- 
dous spectacle,  the  observer  can  hardly  realize  that  the  stain- 
less mountains  before  him  are  actually  from  three  and  a  half 
to  four  miles  high. 

The  people  inhabiting  the  Lower  Himalaya,  among  whom 


282  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

our  missionary  work  is  carried  on,  are  quite  distinct  from 
those  of  the  plains.  Their  origin  is  somewhat  obscure,  al- 
though it  is  generally  accepted  that  they  belong  to  what  is 
called  the  Khasia  race,  which  is  represented  in  other  parts  of 
India,  in  the  plains  as  well  as  the  hills.  They  are  of  some- 
what fairer  complexion  than  the  people  living  on  the  plains 
below  them,  shorter  of  stature,  and  are  usually  supposed  to 
be  less  advanced  in  civilization.  This  remark,  however, 
hardly  does  them  justice.  They  live  in  better  houses  than 
any  others  I  have  seen  in  India.  In  some  parts  of  the  Ap- 
ennines I  have  seen  Italian  villagers  who  did  not  appear  in 
any  respect  to  be  more  advanced  in  civilization  than  many 
of  the  villagers  of  Kumaon  and  Garhwal.  The  houses  are 
built  of  stone,  and  very  often  are  two  stories  high.  The 
people  do  not  enjoy  many  of  the  luxuries  of  life,  and  yet 
there  are  fewer  evidences  of  poverty  than  can  be  found  in 
any  other  part  of  India.  I  am  at  present  among  the  Kumaon 
hills,  and  never  go  out  without  seeing  the  mountain-sides 
half  covered  in  places  with  a  species  of  hawthorn,  which  at 
present  is  laden  with  ripe,  red  berries.  The  hillmen  now 
and  then  stop  to  eat  them,  but  seem  to  care  little  for  them. 
Were  these  ripe  berries  placed  within  the  reach  of  any  vil- 
lage in  any  other  part  of  India,  the  poorer  classes  would  turn 
out  and  devour  them  with  the  utmost  eagerness.  In  school 
the  hill  boys,  in  most  of  their  studies,  make  about  as  good 
progress  as  their  rivals  on  the  plains,  while  in  arithmetic  and 
other  mathematical  studies  they  excel  them.  Slavery  existed 
among  the  people  until  the  advent  of  British  power,  and,  in 
some  forms,  survived  till  a  later  period,  although  the  bond- 
men could  have  found  their  liberty  if  they  had  attempted  to 
gain  it.  In  their  extreme  ignorance  many  were  long  in  com- 
prehending that  they  could  be  free.  The  slavery  in  which 
the  lower  castes  were  held  was  more  like  Russian  serfdom 
than  the  Southern  slavery  with  wrhich  Americans  used  to  be 
familiar.  Girls  were  sold  freely  ;  but  when  it  became  known 
that  the  price  paid  for  them  could  not  be  recovered  in  case 


THE  SECOND  STAGE  OF  PROGRESS.  283 

they  left  their  first  owner,  even  if  he  stood  to  them  in  the 
nominal  relation  of  husband,  this  kind  of  traffic  in  a  large 
measure  ceased.  Nominally  all  the  people  of  these  hill-tracts 
are  Hindus;  but  large  numbers  of  them,  especially  of  the 
lower  castes,  are  in  reality  worshipers  of  demons,  or  of  local 
deities  not  recognized  in  the  Hindu  pantheon.  Two  of  the 
great  shrines  of  Hinduism  are  located  in  Garhwal,  close  up 
to  the  line  of  perpetual  snow.  One  of  them  is  under  the 
shadow  of  the  mountain  Kedarnath,  and  the  other  one  near 
the  better  known  peak  of  Badrinath,  the  former  being  devoted 
to  the  worship  of  Shiva,  and  the  latter  to  that  of  Vishnu. 
Pilgrims  come  from  all  parts  of  the  empire  to  these  shrines, 
and  the  never-ceasing  procession  of  these  devout  but  mis- 
taken people  may  be  seen  every  summer  passing  along  the 
narrow  roads  which  have  been  made  for  them  on  the  banks 
of  the  Upper  Ganges,  or  over  the  mountains  near  the  sources 
of  that  stream. 

Mission-work  was  commenced  in  Garhwal  in  1865,  and 
since  that  day  has  made  fairly  good  progress  in  both  prov- 
inces. Additional  stations  have  been  opened  at  Pithoragarh 
in  Eastern  Kumaon,  and  Dwara  Hat,  near  the  center  of  the 
province.  Out-stations  under  native  helpers  have  also  been 
opened  in  Garhwal. 

Another  of  the  new  stations  occupied  at  this  time  was 
Gonda,  east  of  the  river  Gogra.  This  river,  which  is  but 
little  known  outside  of  India,  and  indeed  scarcely  known  in 
all  parts  of  India  itself,  is  a  larger  stream  than  the  Ganges, 
and  one  of  the  greatest  of  Indian  rivers.  It  stands  related 
to  the  Ganges  very  much  as  the  Missouri  does  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi. The  religious  reverence  in  which  the  Ganges  was 
early  held  gave  it  a  prominence  which  it  has  retained  to  the 
present  day,  and  hence  the  stream  which  reaches  the  sea,  is 
known  as  the  Ganges  all  the  way  down ;  but  as  a  matter  of 
fact  the  Gogra,  which  flows  to  the  eastward,  is  nearly  twice 
as  large  as  the  Ganges  at  the  place  where  the  two  streams 
respectively  leave  the  mountains,  and  retains  its  superiority 


284  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

until  they  meet.  The  smaller,  however,  is  allowed  to  swal- 
low up  the  name  and  fame  of  the  larger,  and  hence  the 
Gogra  is  comparatively  unknown.  Between  this  river 
Gogra  and  another  large  stream  called  the  Rapti,  still  farther 
eastward,  is  a  rich  and  populous  territory  in  the  midst  of 
which  the  little  town  of  Gonda,  the  head-quarters  of  the 
Government  officials  of  a  district  bearing  the  same  name, 
was  selected  as  the  site  of  a  new  mission.  It  was  not  in- 
tended, however,  that  this  one  station  should  confine  its 
operations  to  this  single  district;  and  when  the  Rev.  S. 
Knowles,  the  first  missionary  sent  there,  took  up  his  abode 
and  began  his  work  among  the  people,  he  was  really  the 
pioneer  of  all  missionary  work  throughout  a  populous  region 
equal  to  three  or  four  American  States. 

Mi.  Knowles,  who  is  still  found  working  successfully  at 
Gonda,  has  not  spent  all  the  intervening  years  in  that  terri- 
tory ;  but,  after  having  been  removed  to  various  places,  he 
drifted  back  again  to  his  original  work,  and  has  always 
seemed  the  man  best  adapted  to  the  peculiar  opportunities 
found  in  that  region.  It  was  in  that  part  of  the  country  that 
the  founder  of  Buddhism  was  born,  and  the  great  shrine  of 
Ajyudhiya  is  only  about  thirty  miles  from  the  mission-station 
of  Gonda.  Here  are  annually  held  some  of  the  greatest 
melas,  or  religious  fairs,  to  be  found  in  the  empire,  and  the 
opportunities  for  reaching  the  people,  not  only  from  all  the 
surrounding  country,  but  from  all  manner  of  distant  places, 
is  as  good  as  could  be  desired. 

It  was  in  this  region,  under  the  preaching  of  Mr.  Knowles 
and  his  Hindustani  associates,  that  were  witnessed  the  first 
baptisms  of  converts  in  the  most  public  manner  at  the  great 
melas,  and  in  the  open  streets  of  towns  and  villages.  This 
was  something  new  in  the  history  of  missionary  work  every- 
where in  India.  Previously  people  of  all  castes  and  classes 
had  shrunk  from  baptism,  as  well  as  from  an  open  adherence 
to  the  Christian  religion,  as  from  leprosy  or  death ;  and  when 
it  was  stated  that  men  of  various  castes  had  come  forward  in 


THE  SECOND  STAGE  OF  PROGRESS.  285 

the  most  public  manner,  apparently  moved  by  deep  and 
earnest  religious  conviction,  and  avowed  their  faith  in  Christ 
and  received  baptism,  an  intense  interest  was  manifested  in 
many  missionary  circles  to  know  what  was  the  true  char- 
acter of  this  work,  and  wheretmto  it  was  likely  to  grow. 
Mr.  Knowles  has  since  become  prominently  identified  with 
this  movement,  and  has  year  after  year  baptized  converts 
immediately  on  their  coming  forward  in  this  public  way,  and 
avowing  their  faith  in  Christ,  and  accepting  the  obligations 
of  Christians.  The  movement  has  been  criticised  very  se- 
verely, and,  no  doubt,  in  some  cases  justly ;  but  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  in  this,  as  in  every  other  new  procedure, 
much  had  to  be  learned  by  actual  experience.  The  chief 
difficulty  with  this  kind  of  work  has  been  that  the  converts, 
for  the  most  part,  live  in  distant  villages,  and  seldom  chance 
to  live  together  in  any  considerable  number.  Returning  to 
their  homes  they  are  immediately  confronted  by  hostile 
neighbors,  and  large  numbers  of  them  have  been  found  un- 
able to  endure  the  pressure  to  which  they  are  constantly  sub- 
jected. In  other  cases  Hindustani  preachers  have  admin- 
istered baptism  unwisely,  and  I  fear  in  some  instances  in  a 
manner  deserving  of  immediate  and  severe  repression.  Vil- 
lagers, again,  who  in  large  numbers  had  been  baptized,  with  ap- 
parently every  mark  of  sincerity  on  their  part,  have  been  fright- 
ened by  crafty  devotees,  of  whom  they  have  always  lived  in 
great  awe,  into  a  denial  of  their  faith,  and  thus  in  various  ways 
a  great  deal  of  public  discredit  has  been  thrown  upon  this 
work.  Conceding,  however,  the  worst  that  can  be  alleged 
against  it,  the  fact  remains  that  some  very  precious  fruit  has 
in  this  way  been  gathered,  while  many  of  the  failures  are  so 
clearly  traceable  to  causes  which  might  have  been  avoided, 
that  it  seems  to  be  the  part  of  wisdom  not  rashly  to  reject 
the  whole  movement  as  ill-advised,  but  rather  to  see  the 
hand  of  God  in  it,  and  learn  the  lessons  which  it  clearly 
teaches.  Beyond  a  doubt  these  baptisms  have  marked  an 
advance  in  the  general  work  in  which  we  are  engaged  in 


286  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

India.  The  people  generally  are  becoming  familiarized  with 
baptism,  and  in  the  future  it  seems  certain  that,  when  all  due 
precautions  are  taken  and  all  wise  measures  adopted  in  deal- 
ing with  the  converts,  this  kind  of  work  will  prove  as  pro- 
ductive as  its  most  sanguine  friends  believed  and  hoped  for 
when  it  was  first  commenced. 

The  third  station  occupied  was  that  of  Roy  Bareilly, 
which  represented  a  vast  region  in  Southern  Oudh.  This 
station  was  first  occupied  by  the  Rev.  P.  T.  Wilson,  M.  D., 
who  entered  upon  the  work  with  his  accustomed  zeal ;  but 
after  a  very  few  years  was  compelled  by  ill-health  to  seek  a 
change  to  the  mountains,  and  from  there  was  compelled  to 
go  to  America.  He  has  since  been  very  successful  as  a  worker 
in  Rohilkhand,  but,  unlike  Mr.  Knowles,  has  never  been  able 
to  return  to  his  original  station.  Our  progress  in  this  section 
has  been  less  marked  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  original 
field  occupied  by  us.  A  few  valuable  workers,  however, 
have  been  obtained  among  the  converts,  and  in  due  time,  no 
doubt,  God  will  make  this  field  as  fruitful  as  any  other 
which  we  occupy. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  work  throughout  the  whole 
field  went  steadily  forward,  and  the  missionaries  continued  to 
feel  the  impulse  which  had  been  given  them  by  the  better 
organization  which  the  Annual  Conference  afforded.  Changes 
gradually  began  to  appear,  both  in  the  manner  of  work  and 
in  the  progressive  organization  of  the  workers  and  churches. 
Instead  of  confining  their  public  preaching  almost  exclu- 
fsively  to  the  noisy  bazaars,  the  missionaries  and  Hindustani 
preachers  began  to  find  their  way  into  more  quiet  places. 
In  all  the  cities,  as  well  as  in  the  country  villages,. the  people 
are  often  found  settled  in  small  groups,  like  so  many  sep- 
arate quarters  of  a  town.  A  group,  for  instance,  of  two  or 
three  dozen  houses  will  be  found  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
town,  inhabited  exclusively  by  Chumars,  or  leather-dressers; 
another  by  Chuhras,  a  very  low  caste  of  laborers,  and  so  on. 
Going  into  one  of  these  quarters,  called  in  India  mohullas — a 


THE  SECOND  STAGE  OF  PROGRESS.  287 

word  which  among  missionaries  is  slowly  being  Anglicized — 
the  workers  began  to  hold  meetings  in  a  more  formal  way 
than  was  possible  in  the  bazaars.  They  would  sometimes  sing 
for  half  an  hour  while  the  people  came  together,  when  one 
or  more  of  the  brethren  would  preach,  and  this  would  some- 
times be  followed  by  a  prayer-meeting.  This  kind  of  preach- 
ing was  in  every  way  more  satisfactory  than  the  work  in  the 
bazaar  had  been,  and  much  more  fruit  was  gathered  from 
such  meetings  than  it  had  previously  been  possible  to  secure 
in  any  part  of  the  work.  No  kind  of  Christian  work  in  any 
land  could  be  more  delightful  than  some  of  these  evening 
meetings  proved  to  the  missionaries.  In  a  quiet  moonlight 
night  a  large  audience  would  sometimes  be  gathered  under  a 
tree,  or  perhaps  under  the  open  sky,  with  most  of  the  audi- 
tors squatted  on  the  ground  or  leaning  against  the  mud 
walls  which  shut  in  the  little  village  street.  The  little 
group  of  Christian  workers  sometimes  tarried  literally  for 
hours,  singing,  praying,  talking,  preaching,  arid  frequently 
producing  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  upon  the  minds  of 
those  present. 

With  the  development  of  this  new  kind  of  work  a  val- 
uable discovery  was  made  with  regard  to  the  social  organ- 
ization of  the  people.  I  say  discovery,  for,  although  the  facts 
in  the  case  had  been  well  known  from  the  first,  only  expe- 
rience could  have  taught  the  missionaries  the  importance  of 
following  the  peculiar  lines  which  the  caste  system  of  the 
country  had  marked  out  among  the  people.  On  the  side  of 
a  hill  the  reader  may  have  sometimes  seen  the  different  strata 
of  coal,  limestone,  potter's  clay,  iron,  or  other  minerals,  lying 
horizontally  in  regular  order,  one  above  another.  The  miner 
understands  his  work  well  enough  to  follow  each  stratum,  or 
"  vein,"  as  he  would  say,  along  its  own  level,  without  regard 
to  the  layers  above  or  below ;  and  hence,  at  one  point  in  the 
hill  an  opening  leads  to  galleries  from  which  large  quantities 
of  iron  ore  have  been  extracted ;  another  opens  a  way  for 
taking  out  coal;  a  third,  potter's  clay;  and  so  on.  In  India 


288  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

society  is  stratified  in  the  most  elaborate  manner  by  the  sys- 
tem of  Hindu  caste.  A  thousand  people  may  live  in  the 
same  village,  in  which  all  the  houses  are  huddled  as  closely 
together  as  they  can  be  built,  and  yet  the  inmates  of  these 
houses  are  separated  by  dividing  lines  so  distinctly  marked 
that  in  no  possible  case  will  any  confusion  ever  occur  in  dis- 
tinguishing one  from  the  others.  Some  interests  of  the  whole 
village  are  held  in  common ;  but  in  other  respects  a  move- 
ment may  be  in  progress  in  one  caste  without  affecting  the 
other  castes  at  all.  When  a  straggling  convert  was  picked  up 
here  and  there,  no  place  could  be  found  for  him  in  such  a 
community.  He  was  alike  disowned  by  all,  and  became  an  ob- 
ject of  aversion,  if  not  of  fear,  wherever  he  went.  When, 
however,  the  meetings  spoken  of  above  began  to  result  in  the 
conversion  of  one  or  more  families  in  a  given  caste,  it  nat- 
urally produced  a  great  agitation  in  the  caste  concerned,  and 
sometimes  the  excitement  would  spread  throughout  the  whole 
village ;  but  quite  as  frequently  the  other  people  paid  little 
attention  to  what  was  going  on,  especially  if  the  converts  be- 
longed to  a  low  and  despised  part  of  the  community.  This, 
however,  quickly  led  to  the  discovery  that  much  greater 
progress  could  be  made  by  following  family  and  caste  lines 
than  by  the  more  general  effort  to  reach  a  whole  community  ; 
and  the  progress  which  has  been  since  achieved  has  nearly  all 
followed  from  this  recognition  of  a  very  simple  fact  in  Indian 
social  life.  When  one  family  is  converted,  it  is  always  found 
that  six,  or  perhaps  a  dozen,  other  families  are  related  by 
marriage  or  otherwise  to  the  new  converts.  These  relatives 
invariably  belong  to  the  same  caste  as  the  converts,  as  inter- 
marriage with  other  castes  is  not  permitted ;  and  when  they, 
in  turn,  are  brought  under  Christian  influence  and  converted, 
each  family  opens  the  way  to  as  many  more,  and  thus  the 
circle  of  Christian  influence  widens  rapidly.  In  this  way, 
following  family  lines,  a  steady  advance  from  family  to 
family  has  led  our  workers  in  some  instances  for  fifty  miles 
across  the  country,  with  the  result  of  establishing  a  line 


THE  SECOND  STAGE  OF  PROGRESS.  289 

of  what  might  be  called  Christian  settlements,  or  at  least 
Christian  families  in  a  large  number  of  Hindu  villages. 
With  the  increase  of  converts,  there  was  also  a  steady  increase 
of  workers.  A  large  proportion  of  the  converts  were  em- 
ployed either  as  teachers  in  schools,  or  preachers,  or  colpor- 
teurs, and  every  possible  attempt  was  made  to  improve  the 
character  of  these  workers,  not  only  by  giving  them  the  most 
careful  Christian  culture,  but  by  teaching  them  in  the  ordi- 
nary branches  of  education.  As  time  passed,  it  was  found, 
somewhat  to  the  surprise  of  the  missionaries,  that  men  of 
very  slight  culture  could  be  made  very  useful.  In  fact,  it 
was  discovered  in  India,  as  it  had  been  in  England  and 
America  generations  before,  that  it  was  possible  to  educate 
a  man  so  as  to  separate  him  from  his  fellow-men  rather  than 
bring  him  nearer  to  them.  In  Christian  work,  only  those  men 
can  be  permanently  successful  who  keep  in  constant  touch 
with  the  community  which  is  to  be  reached ;  and  from  that 
early  day  in  our  work  in  India,  up  to  the  present  hour,  it  has 
been  found  that  those  who  bring  forward  the  most  converts 
for  baptism  are  simple,  and  sometimes  almost  illiterate,  men. 
As  these  workers  of  various  grades  increased  in  number, 
it  was  found  that  another  step  would  have  to  be  taken  to  per- 
fect the  organization  of  the  mission.  The  Annual  Conference 
served  a  good  purpose;  but  only  three  native  preachers  were 
admitted  to  its  membership  as  probationers  at  the  first  organ- 
ization, and  comparatively  few  were  found  suited  for  its  re- 
sponsibilities in  later  years.  For  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
native  preachers  and  other  helpers,  it  was  found  necessary  to 
devise  some  other  scheme.  For  two  or  three  years,  district 
associations  were  held,  each  having  a  simple  constitution,  and 
following  the  pattern  of  similar  associations  as  they  existed  in 
the  United  States  at  that  time ;  but  this  plan  did  not  suffice, 
and  after  a  few  years  a  formal  organization  of  what  has  since 
been  called  a  District  Conference  was  effected.  A  somewhat 
elaborate  constitution  was  drawn  up,  and,  with  such  changes 
as  have  been  suggested  by  the  progess  of  the  work  since, 

19 


290  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

remains  in  force  to  the  present  day.  This  was  before  the  Dis- 
trict Conference  was  authorized  by  the  Church  at  home ;  and 
it  is  not  generally  known  that  the  plan  adopted  by  the  Gen- 
eral Conference,  and  which  has  its  place  in  the  Discipline  of 
the  Church  to-day,  was  in  a  large  measure  borrowed  from  the 
little  organization  first  effected  in  India.  An  outline  of  the 
Indian  plan  was  published  in  a  home  paper,  and  was  appro- 
priated freely  by  those  who  devised  the  scheme  for  the  Dis- 
trict Conference  which  afterwards  received  the  sanction  of  the 
General  Conference. 

Six  years  had  passed,  and  the  missionaries  began  to  realize, 
as  they  had  not  at  first  done,  the  magnitude  of  the  task  which 
they  had  undertaken.  New  phases  of  the  work  were  con- 
stantly developing,  the  most  important  of  which  was  the  care 
of  the  female  converts,  who  were  annually  coming  into  the 
Church  in  increasing  numbers.  It  was  found  impossible  to 
give  the  Christian  women — especially  those  gathered  imme- 
diately from  heathenism — the  amount  of  careful  attention 
which  they  needed,  while  all  the  pastoral  care  and  nearly 
all  the  education  devolved  upon  men.  The  necessity  for  a 
woman's  department  of  the  work  began  to  be  felt;  and  at  the 
end  of  this  second  term  of  six  years  the  first  two  lady  mission- 
aries sent  out  by  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
arrived  upon  the  field.  The  first  appointee  of  the  Society  was 
Miss  Isabella  Thoburn,  and  the  second,  Miss  Clara  Swain, 
M.  D.,  who  was  the  first  medical  lady  ever  sent  as  a  mission- 
ary into  any  non-Christian  country.  Both  of  these  workers 
'are  still  in  the  field,  although  Dr.  Swain  has  for  some  years 
been  working  independently  of  the  Society,  but  still  retain- 
ing her  connection  with  the  Church,  and  doing  a  good  work 
in  a  very  remote  and  needy  field.  At  this  point  we  reach  the 
termination  of  what  may  be  considered  the  second  stage  of 
progress  in  our  work. 


Chapter  XXI. 
CROSSING  THE  INDIAN  RUBICON. 

FOR  a  year  or  two  prior  to  1870,  a  conviction  began  to 
be  entertained  by  a  number  of  our  missionaries,  that  it 
would  be  impossible  for  us  to  confine  our  efforts  permanently 
to  the  comparatively  small  field  which  had  first  been  chosen 
for  us.  The  new  railways  had  been  pushed  up  into  North 
India,  and  were  being  spread  like  a  network  all  over  the 
empire.  All  along  these  lines  of  rail,  at  distances  of  one 
hundred  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  stations  had  been 
opened,  where  ten,  twenty,  fifty,  or  sometimes  one  hundred 
families  of  English-speaking  people  were  settled.  The  con- 
ditions of  life  and  labor  were  constantly  changing.  New 
activities  were  being  introduced  in  every  direction.  The 
newspapers  of  the  day  began  more  and  more  to  speak  of  all 
public  interests  as  common  to  the  whole  empire,  and  it  was 
impossible  for  men  who  were  beginning  to  discover,  in  some 
cases  to  their  own  surprise,  that  they  had  become  attached  to 
India  and  were  making  it  their  own  country,  deliberately  to 
reconcile  themselves  to  the  thought  of  living  behind  a 
Chinese  wall,  which  must  forever  shut  them  out  from  the 
rest  of  the  magnificent  empire  to  which  God  had  brought 
them.  While  viewing  the  matter  in  this  general  way,  some 
of  the  workers  also  began  to  feel  a  deep  conviction  that  God 
had  special  work  for  them  beyond  the  Ganges;  that  He  whose 
providence  had  brought  the  representatives  of  so  many 
churches  to  India,  had  probably  purposes  of  his  own  which 
transcended  the  plans  formed  by  man's  wisdom ;  and  while 
the  Christian  worth  of  every  other  worker  and  every  other 
society  was  fully  recognized,  it  was  thought  that  possibly 

291 


292  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

there  were  kinds  of  work  to  be  done,  which,  as  in  England 
and  America,  could  be  accomplished  better  by  us  than  by  others. 
This  question  became  a  subject  of  frequent  discussion  up  to 
the  year  1870,  by  which  time  a  number  had  become  con- 
vinced that  we  could  not  much  longer  confine  ourselves  to 
our  then  existing  bounds. 

It  was  not  easy,  however,  to  make  a  move  forward.  The 
belief  in  the  rules  of  what  was  popularly  known  as  mission- 
ary courtesy  was  almost  universal.  The  Ganges  separated 
us  on  the  west  from  our  Presbyterian  brethren,  with  whom 
we  had  always  maintained  the  most  fraternal  relations,  as  we 
do  to  the  present  day.  If  we  crossed  the  stream,  it  might 
seem  as  if  we  were  trespassing  upon  territory  which  they  had 
set  apart  for  themselves ;  and  this  would  be  viewed  as  a  tres- 
pass, not  only  by  them,  but  by  missionaries  generally  in  other 
parts  of  the  country.  Hence  we  hesitated  long,  and  knew 
not  when  or  how  God  in  his  providence  would  bid  us  go 
forward. 

In  the  hot  season  of  1 870  I  was  living  in  Lucknow,  and 
it  so  chanced  that  on  a  certain  Sunday  I  was  left  with 
nothing  to  do.  The  preaching  appointments  had  been  ar- 
ranged by  others,  and  for  the  first  time  in  years  I  found 
myself  with  a  prospect  of  an  idle  Sunday  before  me.  On 
Saturday  I  had  an  errand  at  the  railway  station,  and  while 
standing  on  the  platform  I  was  accosted  by  a  gentleman  of 
the  city  with  an  open  telegram  in  his  hand,  who  asked  me  if 
I  knew  any  one  who  could  go  to  Cawupore  the  following 
day,  and  preach  for  a  small  congregation  there.  I  told  him 
that  I  knew  no  one  excepting  myself,  and  that  as  I  chanced - 
to  be  disengaged  I  should  be  happy  to  go.  An  arrangement 
was  immediately  made,  and  a  telegram  sent  to  the  parties  in 
Cawnpore,  notifying  them  that  I  would  come  over  in  the 
evening.  Cawnpore,  however,  was  on  the  western  side  of 
the  Ganges,  a  little  less  than  fifty  miles  from  Lucknow,  and 
was  thus  beyond  the  limits  of  our  field.  I  accordingly  went, 
and  was  cordially  received  by  a  Baptist  brother,  who  explained 


CROSSING  THE  INDIAN  RUBICON.  293 

that  they  had  rented  a  small  building  in  which  union  serv- 
ices were  held,  and  that  they  had  secured  preachers  for 
two  Sundays  of  every  month.  He  urged  me  to  help  them 
out  by  providing  for  one,  if  not  both,  of  the  remaining  Sun- 
days. I  preached  on  Sabbath  morning  and  evening  to  a 
small  but  interesting  congregation,  and  was  received  so 
kindly,  and  importuned  so  strongly  to  return,  and  especially 
to  help  them  to  effect  a  permanent  arrangement,  that,  after 
prayerful  consideration,  I  promised  to  see  that  the  remaining 
two  Sundays  were  filled.  Very  shortly  after  this  the  Bap- 
tist missionary,  who  had  been  going  once  a  month  to  the 
place,  wrote  me  relinquishing  his  part  of  the  work,  and  sug- 
gesting that  it  could  be  more  easily  filled  by  myself.  This 
practically  left  the  responsibility  of  the  service  resting  upon 
me,  and  I  thus  found  myself  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Ganges,  outside  our  Chinese  wall,  with  a  work  which  had 
come  into  my  hands  in  such  a  way  that  I  could  not  doubt  that 
God  was  leading  me  in  what  I  had  done.  But  while  it  is 
easy  enough  to  write  these  few  lines,  the  decision  which  I 
was  obliged  to  make  at  the  time  caused  me  an  amount  of 
anxiety  which  it  is  not  easy  now  to  realize.  Crossing  the 
Ganges  was  to  me  indeed  the  crossing  of  a  Rubicon.  I  knew 
beyond  a  doubt  that  if  we  planted  ourselves  in  Cawnpore,  we 
could  not  stop  there.  If  we  crossed  the  Ganges  at  all,  the 
same  guiding  hand  which  led  us  to  the  first  city  on  its  west- 
ern bank  might  assuredly  be  expected  to  lead  us  on  to  other 
cities.  Once  beyond  the  barrier,  there  could  be  no  second 
boundary-line  drawn. 

When  we  met  in  our  Annual  Conference  at  the  close  of 
the  year,  the  whole  bearing  of  this  movement  was  carefully 
and  prayerfully  discussed ;  but  even  then  very  few  of  those 
present  were  able  to  realize  whereunto  this  would  grow.  It 
seemed  impossible,  in  that  day  of  small  things,  that  we  should 
be  able  to  do  much  except  on  our  own  immediate  border. 
Cawnpore,  however,  was  a  large  and  growing  city,  and  was 
then,  as  it  still  is,  commercially  the  most  important  inland 


294  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA, 

city  of  the  empire.  While  some  doubt  of  the  wisdom  of 
going  farther  than  that  one  point  was  entertained,  the  opin- 
ion was  almost  unanimous  that  we  were  perfectly  justifiable 
in  taking  up  a  work  which  had  thus  been  so  unexpectedly 
thrust  upon  us.  This  work  was  among  Europeans,  it  is 
true ;  but  it  was  recognized  then,  as  it  has  been  ever  since, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  maintain  a  living  Christian  church 
among  Europeans  in  a  country  like  India,  without  at  the 
same  time  doing  something  at  least  for  the  teeming  masses 
of  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  among  whom  the  Europeans 
live.  We  were  practically  committed  to  missionary  work  on 
the  western  side  of  the  Ganges.  We  might  tarry  at  this  one 
point  a  year  or  ten  years ;  but  unless  we  ceased  to  be  active 
evangelists,  we  could  not  be  expected  to  tarry  there  per- 
manently. 

Just  at  this  crisis  appeared  in  our  midst  the  renowned 
William  Taylor,  at  that  time  known  as  "  California  Taylor." 
He  had  come  to  us  from  Australia,  after,  however,  receiving 
earnest  invitations,  not  only  from  myself,  but  from  the  Rev. 
James  Smith,  a  Baptist  brother  of  Delhi.  His  purpose  in 
coming  to  India  had  been  to  spend  a  season  merely  as  an 
evangelist  among  the  Wesleyan  missions  in  the  South,  and 
our  own  missions  in  North  India.  He  tarried  for  some 
time  in  Ceylon,  waiting  till  arrangements  could  be  made  for 
him  by  the  Wesleyan  brethren  in  Madras ;  but  not  finding  an 
immediate  opening  in  that  direction,  in  response  to  repeated 
and  urgent  telegrams  from  myself,  he  went  up  the  western 
coast  to  Bombay,  and  thence  proceeded  to  Lucknow,  where 
he  began  his  work. 

The  coming  of  this  world-renowned  evangelist  marks  an 
era  in  our  progress.  Our  thought  in  inviting  him,  and  his 
thought  in  coming,  were  simply  that  he  might  kindle  a  new 
flame  among  us,  and  set  in  motion  an  evangelistic  work 
which  should  go  forward  among  the  masses  of  the  people. 
We  thought  he  might  do  this  in  the  course  of  a  few  months, 
in  the  same  way  in  which  he  had  done  so  great  a  work  in 


CROSSING  THE  INDIAN  RUBICON.  295 

South  Africa.  But  God's  thoughts  were  not  as  our  thoughts, 
and  his  plans  differed  from  ours  very  widely  indeed.  The 
evangelist  met  with  his  usual  success  when  preaching  among 
the  Europeans  in  Lucknow,  and,  after  a  short  stay,  went 
over  to  Cawnpore,  where  our  little  congregation  had  in- 
creased till  the  room  was  filled  to  its  utmost  capacity,  and 
repeated  his  good  work  there.  He  then  devoted  himself  to 
the  natives  of  Lucknow,  and  subsequently  went  among  the 
native  Christians  of  Rohilkhand.  Wherever  he  went  good 
was  effected;  but  upon  the  whole,  his  work  among  the 
Hindustani  people  was  a  disappointment  both  to  himself  and 
us.  The  success  which  had  been  achieved  in  South  Africa 
failed  to  appear  in  India.  With  our  riper  experience  we 
can  understand  this  now ;  but  missionaries,  like  other  people, 
have  many  lessons  to  learn,  which  can  only  be  mastered  in 
the  school  of  experience.  God's  plan  for  his  servant  was 
not  our  plan.  The  evangelist  spent  the  rainy  season  of  1871 
in  Naini  Tal,  and  then,  after  a  short  tour  in  North  India, 
proceeded  to  Bombay,  where  the  peculiar  work,  which  for 
some  years  bore  his  name,  began. 

Bishop  Taylor  in  those  days  was  physically,  mentally, 
and  spiritually,  in  his  best  prime.  His  erect  form,  unusual 
stature,  patriarchal  beard,  kindly  but  piercing  eye,  gave  him 
an  appearance  which  would  arrest  attention  anywhere,  but 
which  was  peculiarly  impressive  to  an  Oriental  people.  His 
sermons  were  often,  and  indeed  for  the  most  part,  rambling, 
and  much  more  didactic  than  hortatory.  He  soon  learned 
to  depend  upon  quiet  work,  with  small  audiences,  or  often 
but  a  single  family,  to  labor  with,  rather  than  to  move  heaven 
and  earth  by  trying  all  manner  of  expedients  to  get  a  large 
crowd.  The  result  was,  that  he  gained  an  extraordinary  in- 
fluence over  his  converts.  He  knew  them  intimately,  he 
had  labored  with  them  personally,  had  seen  them  almost 
constantly  in  their  homes,  bowed  with  them  at  their  family 
altars,  and  acquainted  himself  with  all  their  domestic  troubles 
and  anxieties.  He  won  many  friends  in  Bombay,  most  of 


296 


INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 


whom  were  Europeans  or  Eurasians,  and  in  a  short  time  organ- 
ized them  into  a  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  His  organiza- 
tion was  exceedingly  thorough,  and  the  most  permanent 
fruits  of  his  four  years'  labor  in  India  are  still  found  in  that 
city.  From  Bombay  he  proceeded  to  Poona,  and  repeated 
his  work  there.  In  the  meantime  one  of  his  converts  had 


BISHOP  WILLIAM  TAYLOR. 

commenced  holding  meetings  in  Secuuderabad,  a  military 
station  adjoining  Hyderabad,  the  capital  of  the  Nizam's 
territories.  This  work  also  became  permanent,  and  was  or- 
ganized in  connection  with  our  Church.  The  following  year 
the  evangelist  proceeded  to  Calcutta,  where  he  remained 
thirteen  months.  His  success  in  this  city  was  not  equal  to 
that  achieved  in  Western  India,  and  he  frequently  remarked 


CROSSING  THE  INDIAN  RUBICON.  297 

that  it  was  the  hardest  field  he  had  ever  tried  to  cultivate. 
He  succeeded,  however,  in  laying  a  foundation  upon  which 
a  successful  work  has  since  been  built.  Going  thence  to 
Madras,  he  achieved  his  greatest  success  in  India,  so  far  as 
the  number  of  converts  was  concerned;  but  as  he  only  tarried 
among  them  for  a  few  weeks,  the  organization  was  not  per- 
fected as  it  had  been  in  Bombay,  and  the  results  proved 
very  much  less  permanent.  From  Madras  he  proceeded  to 
Bangalore,  where  his  success  was  equally  marked;  after 
which  he  revisited  some  of  his  old  scenes  of  labor,  and  then 
left  India.  He  had  not  accomplished  what  he  had  hoped,  and 
yet  he  had,  during  his  four  years'  stay,  made  an  impression, 
not  only  upon  our  own  work,  but  upon  India  at  large,  which 
is  felt  to  the  present  day,  and  will  continue  to  be  felt  for 
many  years  to  come. 

The  organization  of  these  widely  separated  churches  in 
the  leading  cities  of  India  excited  attention  in  both  India 
and  America,  and  created  no  little  controversy  as  to  the 
final  outcome  of  the  movement.  From  the  first  the  evan- 
gelist disavowed  all  intention  of  founding  an  independent 
Church ;  and  when  Bishop  Harris  visited  India  in  December 
and  January,  1873-4,  with  the  cordial  approval  of  Bishop 
Taylor,  he  organized  his  scattered  churches  into  what  was 
ecclesiastically  called  a  mission,  which  was  formally  recog- 
nized by  the  General  Committee  at  its  regular  meeting  in 
New  York.  The  work,  however,  continued  to  spread,  and 
other  churches  were  organized,  until  the  session  of  the 
General  Conference  of  1876,  which  authorized  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  second  Annual  Conference  in  India.  In  the 
absence  of  a  better  name,  inasmuch  as  the  first  Conference 
was  located  in  North  India,  the  title  of  South  India  was 
given  to  the  new  organization — a  title  which  for  many  years 
seriously  misled  the  public  mind  in  America.  Even  to  the 
present  day,  some  of  the  stations  of  the  Conference  which 
bears  the  original  name  are  among  the  most  northern  of  the 
empire. 


298  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

By  the  organization  of  this  Conference  we  were  formally 
and  legally  authorized  to  look  upon  all  India  as  our  field  of 
labor.  In  a  way  which  no  human  mind  would  have  antici- 
pated, we  had  been  led  on  from  one  point  to  another,  until 
now  we  found  our  missionaries  working  in  the  three  great 
cities  which  had  formerly  been  known  as  the  capitals  of  the 
three  presidencies  into  which  India  had  been  divided.  "We 
had  men  stationed  also  at  one  or  more  points  in  nearly  all 
the  great  provinces,  and  every  one  gifted  with  ordinary  fore- 
sight was  even  then  able  to  foresee  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible for  us  to  tarry  permanently  in  these  cities  which  we 
had  occupied.  In  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  if  our  de- 
tached churches  lived  and  prospered,  they  must  take  up 
missionary  work  among  the  people;  and  if  they  did  this,  it 
could  not  but  happen  that  we  would  in  time  find  ourselves 
confronted  with  responsibilities,  compared  with  which  all 
which  had  gone  before  would  seem  almost  like  child's  play. 
But  few  persons,  it  is  true,  seemed  to  realize  this  at  that 
early  day,  and  in  America  for  many  years  it  was  impossible 
to  get  any  one  seriously  to  consider  the  probability  of  a 
great  Methodist  Church,  embracing  the  whole  of  the  vast 
region  known  as  India,  ever  becoming  a  practical  reality. 

The  work,  however,  continued  to  go  forward.  In  1879 
a  church  was  organized,  and  a  mission  planted  in  the 
city  of  Eangoon,  750  miles  southeast  of  Calcutta,  and  we 
were  thus  committed  to  bear  a  share  in  the  great  work  of 
evangelizing  Burma.  A  foot-hold  had  also  been  secured  at 
Lahore,  the  capital  of  the  Panjab.  The  city  of  Karachi,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river  Indus,  had  been  entered  long  before. 
The  work  had  also  taken  root  at  Nagpore  and  Jabalpur,  in 
the  Central  Provinces  of  India,  and  at  Ajmere,  in  Rajputana, 
or,  as  it  is  more  generally  represented  on  the  maps,  in 
Central  India.  In  other  smaller  places,  east,  north,  west, 
and  south,  our  people  have  since  been  steadily  pushing  on 
their  way,  as  God  in  his  providence  has  led  them. 

With  this  steady  advance  in  so  many  different  directions, 


CROSSING  THE  INDIAN  RUBICON.  299 

a  new  anxiety  began  to  be  felt,  especially  by  those  who  were 
intrusted  with  the  responsibility  of  leading  in  India.  An- 
nual Conferences  in  such  a  country  can  not  exist  as  they  do 
in  America.  The  country  is  so  immensely  large,  the  inter- 
ests so  varied,  the  experience  of  the  workers  so  different  in 
many  important  respects,  that  it  was  felt  that  some  bond 
was  needed  to  hold  together  the  scattered  workers  with  their 
several  organizations.  The  great  work  must  be  unified,  and, 
if  possible,  so  directed  that  it  could  be  everywhere  wisely 
conserved.  Hence,  in  1880,  after  much  correspondence  and 
careful  discussion,  a  memorial  was  sent  to  the  General  Con- 
ference, asking  for  the  authorization  of  a  central  body,  em- 
powered to  deal  with  such  questions  as  might  be  common  to 
our  churches  and  missions  in  India.  On  the  face  of  it  the 
proposal  looked  very  much  like  asking  for  an  Indian  Gen- 
eral Conference,  and  we  can  now  clearly  see  that  such  a  pro- 
posal was  well  calculated  to  excite  alarm.  The  memorial, 
however,  was  received  with  much  favor  by  many  influential 
men,  but  never  came  before  the  General  Conference  in  such 
a  shape  as  to  be  put  to  the  test  of  a  vote.  Four  years  later, 
however,  a  new  measure,  differing  very  slightly  from  the  orig- 
inal one,  and  containing  nearly  every  provision  which  the  mis- 
sionaries had  asked  for,  passed  the  General  Conference  with 
but  slight  opposition.  A  general  supervising  body,  called  a 
Central  Conference,  was  authorized,  and  the  following  year 
formally  organized  by  Bishop  Hurst.  The  creation  of  this 
Central  Conference  marked  the  beginning  of  another  era  in 
our  work.  It  has  proved  invaluable  to  us  in  the  years  that 
have  since  passed,  and  has  justified  the  wisdom,  not  only  of 
its  first  projectors,  but  of  those  who  assisted  in  securing  for 
it  favorable  action  from  the  General  Conference. 

The  advance  movement  which  led  to  the  extension  of 
our  work  into  the  most  remote  parts  of  the  empire  was  at 
first  confined  exclusively  to  English-speaking  people;  that 
is,  either  Europeans,  directly  from  Europe,  or  the  children 
of  Europeans  and  Eurasians,  with  a  slight  sprinkling  of 


300  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Indians  who  had  become  familiar  with  the  English  lan- 
guage. Very  great  hopes  were  entertained  at  the  outset 
that  these  people,  especially  those  who  had  been  born  in 
India  and  had  more  or  less  familiarity  with  the  Indian  lan- 
guages, would  prove  invaluable  in  opening  doors  of  access  to 
the  great  native  communities  among  whom  they  had  prov- 
identially been  placed.  As  in  the  first  century,  when  Barna- 
bas and  Saul  began  their  great  work,  it  was  found  that  the 
scattered  colonies  of  Jews,  at  that  time  found  in  every  con- 
siderable city  and  town  in  the  Roman  Empire,  were  always 
conveniently  present  to  introduce  the  strangers,  and,  even 
though  hostile  to  them,  served  as  so  many  doors  of  access  to 
the  Gentiles;  so  it  seemed  in  India  that  God  had  scattered 
abroad  all  over  the  vast  empire,  along  the  railway-lines  and 
in  the  chief  cities,  little  colonies  of  4  Europeans  or  of  persons 
who  had  adopted  European  habits,  and  both  used  the  En- 
glish tongue  and  professed  the  Christian  religion.  These 
little  settlements,  it  was  hoped,  would  prove  like  so  many 
starting-points  for  a  newr  missionary  movement;  and  in  many 
places  those  who  were  gathered  into  the  little  Churches 
formed  in  that  day  were  at  once  initiated  into  some  form  of 
missionary  work.  It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  the 
hopes  at  first  entertained  in  this  direction  have  not  been 
realized.  What  might  have  been  done  under  better  manage- 
ment, it  is  difficult  to  tell.  As  it  was,  the  efforts  made  were 
somewhat  desultory,  and,  for  the  most  part,  no  proper  direc- 
tion was  given  to  the  work.  Of  all  those  who  composed  the 
South  India  Conference  at  the  time  of  its  organization,  only 
two  can  fairly  be  said  to  have  had  actual  experience  in  mis- 
sionary work.  For  the  most  part,  each  missionary  was  left 
to  work  for  himself,  and  it  ought  not  to  surprise  us  that  in 
many  cases — in  nearly  every  case — such  isolated  laborers 
failed  to  learn  an  Indian  tongue,  or  to  engage  in  labor  among 
the  Hindus  and  Mohammedans,  while  at  the  same  time  ful- 
filling the  somewhat  arduous  duties  of  English  pastors. 

Bishop  Andrews  visited  India  during  the  cold  season  of 


CROSSING  THE  INDIAN  RUBICON.  301 

1876-7,  and  a  few  days  after  his  arrival  at  Bombay  he  for- 
mally organized  the  South  India  Conference,as  he  had  been  em- 
powered to  do  by  the  General  Conference  held  in  May  preced- 
ing. This  body  at  first  was  composed  of  twenty-one  members 
and  probationers.  Its  members  were  full  of  zeal  and  hope, 
and  both  in  India  and  in  the  United  States  many  watched  the 
progress  of  the  new  Conference  with  prayerful  interest,  and 
were  inclined  to  hope  that  the  outcome  would  affect  most 
favorably  our  missionary  interests  in  the  country.  The  re- 
sult, however,  while  not  by  any  means  wholly  unsatisfactory, 
has  not  met  the  sanguine  expectations  which  were  cherished 
at  the  outset.  The  general  value  of  this  work,  and  the  bear- 
ing of  some  of  its  peculiar  features  upon  our  general  mis- 
sionary work,  will  be  discussed  in  one  or  more  succeeding 
chapters;  but  for  the  present  suffice  it  to  say  that  the  greatest 
result,  and  probably  the  providential  purpose  which  God  had 
specially  in  view  at  the  outset,  was  that  of  fully  and  finally 
committing  us  to  the  great  work  of  doing  a  full  share  of  the 
evangelization  of  all  parts  of  the  great  Indian  Empire. 
Whatever  other  result  was  not  attained,  this  much  was  cer- 
tainly done.  When  a  Central  Conference  had  been  organized, 
with  Annual  Conferences  possessing,  in  some  respects,  inter- 
ests subordinate  to  this  central  body,  and  when  converts  be- 
gan to  be  enrolled,  although  but  few  in  number,  in  Bengal, 
South  and  West  India,  Central  India,  and  the  Panjab,  it  was 
felt  not  only  that  we  had  been  wonderfully  led  from  place  to 
place,  but  that  God  had  laid  upon  us  a  responsibility  from 
which,  in  the  future,  there  could  be  no  further  shrinking. 
Every  one  seemed  able  to  read  the  common  duty,  written  as 
it  clearly  was  by  the  Spirit  and  providence  of  God,  in  charac- 
ters which  no  longer  could  be  mistaken.  All  India  became 
our  field.  We  were  not  to  antagonize  any  one,  not  to  oc- 
cupy in  any  place  the  position  of  rivals,  not  to  waste  time  or 
labor  in  trying  merely  to  maintain  a  given  position  among 
our  brother  missionaries,  but  in  the  fear  of  God  to  take  up 
that  part  of  the  work  which,  in  his  providence,  might  fall  to 


302  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

us,  and  make  full  proof  of  our  ministry  in  every  nook  and 
corner  of  the  empire  to  which  he  might  send  us.  We  had 
indeed  crossed  our  Rubicon.  We  were  at  last  able  fully  to 
realize  how  much  had  been  involved  in  the  apparently  inci- 
dental acceptance  of  an  appointment  to  preach  on  a  certain 
Sunday  in  the  city  of  Cawnpore.  One  step  had  led  to  another, 
and  each  door,  as  it  opened  its  portals  before  us,  only  dis- 
closed another  in  advance,  which  must  open  in  like  manner; 
but  even  then  we  did  not  know  that  God  intended  to  lead 
us  to  regions  still  further  on.  Nor  is  it  probable  that  even 
now  we  understand,  even  in  a  slight  degree,  the  stupendous 
proportions  of  the  task  which  God,  in  his  own  vision,  sees 
looming  up  before  us.  We  can  only  stand  with  our  loins 
girded  about,  ready  to  move  forward  as  we  are  summoned 
from  on  high,  and  meet  our  responsibilities  as  God  himself 
lays  them  upon  us. 


Chapter  XXII. 

HIDDEN   RESOURCES. 

IN  most  non-Christian  lands  the  missionary  is  wholly  de- 
pendent upon  the  society  which  sends  him  forth.  Under 
ordinary  circumstances  it  would  be  too  much  to  expect  any 
people  professing  a  non-Christian  faith,  to  contribute  to  the 
support  of  men  and  women  who  avowedly  come  among  them 
to  overturn  their  religious  institutions,  and  undermine  their 
ancestral  faith.  Every  Christian  missionary  who  understands 
the  true  dignity  of  his  calling,  feels  instinctively  that  com- 
mon honesty  demands  of  him  an  open  avowal  of  his  purpose 
in  taking  up  his  abode  among  a  strange  people.  He  may 
use  ordinary  prudence,  it  is  true,  as  to  the  time  and  place  of 
making  his  avowal ;  but  if  he  attempts  to  conceal  his  pur- 
pose at  the  outset,  it  is  sure  to  lead  to  trouble  in  after  days. 
He  must  answer  all  questions  with  transparent  honesty,  and 
those  who  know  him  must  understand  from  the  beginning 
that  he  comes  as  a  messenger  of  the  living  God,  summoning 
all  persons,  without  respect  to  age,  sex,  or  condition,  to  re- 
ceive the  message  which  he  brings,  and  yield  their  hearts  to 
the  King  of  all  nations  and  the  Father  of  all  men.  It  has 
sometimes  happened  that  a  missionary  thus  avowing  his  pur- 
pose has  been  received  kindly,  and  assisted  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  by  the  people  whom  he  wishes  to  convert;  but 
such  instances  must,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  always  be  ex- 
ceptional. The  various  missionary  societies  which  send  forth 
their  workers,  accept  it  as  an  invariable  fact  that  they  must 
provide  for  those  who  go  forth  in  their  name.  India,  how- 
ever, forms  in  some  respects  an  exception  to  the  general  rule. 
As  mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter,  little  colonies  of  Euro- 

303 


304  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

peans  and  Eurasians  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  empire,  and 
as  these  people  invariably  profess  the  Christian  religion,  a 
small  measure  of  support  at  least  may  justly  be  expected  from 
them  in  aid  of  the  missionary  enterprise,  which  in  many 
cases  they  see  carried  on  before  their  eyes.  In  the  larger 
cities,  and  sometimes  in  the  smaller  stations  where  a  few 
Christian  officials  may  chance  to  have  been  grouped  together, 
very  material  aid  has  been  given  to  missionary  work  from 
the  first ;  but  nevertheless,  taking  the  empire  as  a  whole,  the 
rule  has  been  that  the  work  can  only  advance  in  proportion 
to  the  amount  of  assistance  sent  from  Christian  lands. 

In  our  own  case,  when  we  had  crossed  our  Rubicon,  as 
noted  in  the  previous  chapter,  we  were  confronted  with  op- 
portunities which  seemed  tempting  enough ;  but  the  time 
was  not  opportune  for  expecting  any  material  support  of  an 
advance  movement  from  our  friends  in  America.  The  pros- 
perous years  which  followed  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  were 
drawing  to  a  close,  and  indications  of  great  stringency  were 
appearing  on  the  financial  horizon.  Moreover,  it  had  been 
accepted  from  the  first  by  the  Missionary  Board  that  money 
sent  to  India  could  not  justly  be  used  for  any  purpose 
except  in  more  or  less  directly  trying  to  secure  the  conver- 
sion of  the  non-Christian  people.  Indeed,  we  had  been  at 
times  peremptorily  notified  that  no  money  should  be  used  in 
what  was  called  English  work.  This  rule  was  applied  more 
rigidly  than  wisely.  Had  the  same  rule  been  applied  in 
many  parts  of  the  United  States,  it  would  have  made  a  differ- 
ence of  $100,000  in  the  appropriations  to  the  home-field. 
Nevertheless,  no  one  in  India  felt  like  finding  fault  with 
the  policy  which  had  been  laid  down,  and  hence  it  did  not 
occur  to  any  one  to  ask  for  money  in  aid  of  an  advance  move- 
ment among  people  who  even  nominally  professed  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  By  the  time,  however,  that  we  were  ready  to 
advance,  all  possibility  of  changing  the  policy,  at  least  for 
many  years,  had  vanished.  The  great  financial  panic,  which 
had  been  anticipated  for  a  year  or  two,  had  at  last  burst  upon 


HIDDEN  RESOURCES.  305 

the  country.  The  Missionary  Society  found  itself  over- 
whelmed with  an  enormous  debt,  and  most  seriously  em- 
barrassed in  its  efforts  to  maintain  the  work  to  which  it  was 
already  pledged  in  foreign  fields.  It  would  have  been  cruel 
to  ask,  and  most  certainly  would  have  been  impossible  to  ob- 
tain, assistance  from  missionary  funds  for  such  a  work  as  we 
were  then  inaugurating  among  the  English-speaking  people 
of  India. 

It  seemed  to  us  that  we  ought  to  enter  the  open  doors 
before  us,  and  yet  we  had  not  a  dollar  in  the  shape  of  finan- 
cial resources.  What  were  we  to  do?  It  has  been  assumed 
too  often  that  at  this  crisis  a  new  plan  was  devised,  which 
has  been  popularly  presented  before  the  Church  under  the 
very  equivocal  name  of  self-support ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
we  devised  nothing  new  whatever.  We  simply  fell  back 
upon  the  old  plan  which  had  been  adopted  by  Francis  Asbury 
and  his  associates  before  we  were  born.  It  was  primitive 
Methodism  applied  to  an  emergency  to  which  it  was  found 
to  be  admirably  adapted.  The  missionary  who  went  to  a 
people  speaking  English  and  professing  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, proceeded  precisely  as  hundreds  of  Methodist  preach- 
ers had  done  in  earlier  days  all  over  the  Western  States.  If 
I  may  refer  to  myself  as  an  example,  I  entered  this  work  in 
1874,  but  in  doing  so  preceded  upon  precisely  the  same 
lines  which  I  had  been  taught  to  follow  when  a  youth  of 
twenty-one  in  Ohio.  Indeed,  so  far  as  any  hardship  con- 
nected with  the  work  was  concerned,  I  had  learned  the  secret 
of  self-support  in  Ohio  at  a  greater  personal  cost  to  myself 
than  that  which  I  was  called  upon  to  assume  in  India.  When 
a  youth,  leaving  college,  I  was  asked  by  a  presiding  elder  to 
go  to  a  circuit  concerning  which  I  knew  nothing  whatever 
except  its  name.  I  went  as  a  perfect  stranger,  with  an  as- 
sured salary  of  $100  a  year.  I  found  that  I  was  expected  to 
purchase  a  horse,  keep  myself  decently  clothed,  provide  my- 
self with  books,  and  live  as  best  I  could.  One  resource 
upon  which  I  was  able  to  trust  without  a  shadow  of  mis- 

20 


306  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

giving  was  the  hospitality  of  the  people.  In  India  we  simply 
fell  back  upon  this  old  method.  A  man  who  can  preach 
successfully  enough  to  win  the  attendance  of  the  people  will 
find  hospitality  in  any  part  of  the  world,  and  all  he  has  to 
do  is  to  follow  the  Saviour's  direction  and  accept  hospitality 
in  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  given.  Then  if  he  works  among 
a  people  who  are  willing  to  entertain  him,  he  is  absolutely 
sure  of  winning  their  hearts  for  Christ ;  and  men  who  have 
been  utterly  changed  in  heart  and  life  are  always  willing  to 
pluck  out  their  eyes  for  the  man  who  leads  them  to  the 
Saviour.  This  is  the  New  Testament  plan  of  proceeding 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  where  men  work  in  their  own 
country  and  among  their  own  people;  and  when  we  began  to 
apply  this  rule,  as  several  of  us  had  learned  to  do  in  America, 
we  found  it  perfectly  applicable  to  the  English-speaking  peo- 
ple in  India.  They  received  us  kindly,  proffered  us  a  boun- 
tiful hospitality,  and  thus  relieved  us  of  any  financial  care. 
The  application  of  this  simple  rule  in  our  case  amounted 
to  the  discovery  of  hidden  resources  of  inestimable  value. 
We  were  able  to  plant  our  Church  in  nearly  all  the  great 
cities  of  India  so  quietly  that  our  friends  in  America  would 
hear  nothing  of  it  till  the  work  was  done.  We  were  led 
from  one  point  to  another  by  various  indications  of  the  prov- 
idence of  God,  some  of  them  very  surprising  and  wonderful 
in  their  character,  and  some  of  them  very  simple  and  ordi- 
nary ;  but  in  every  case  we  were  made  to  feel  that  a  power 
above  and  beyond  human  wisdom  was  leading  us  forward. 
We  also  soon  began  to  discover  that  these  hidden  resources 
would  be  equal  to  more  than  the  mere  support  of  a  certain 
number  of  missionaries.  Churches  and  chapels  began  to 
rise  unexpectedly  in  the  cities  occupied,  and  soon  the  par- 
sonage would  follow.  A  year  or  two  later,  and  schools 
began  to  take  shape ;  and  thus  it  came  to  pass  that  a  vast 
net-work  of  agencies  was  organized,  spread  all  over  the  em- 
pire, steadily  gaining  in  stability,  and  giving  promise  of  a 
permanency  which  could  not  easily  be  shaken.  Mistakes 


HIDDEN  RESOURCES.  307 

were  made,  of  course,  but  these  may  be  expected  wherever 
human  agency  is  employed ;  and  although  we  may  naturally 
look  back  upon  some  of  these  mistakes  with  regret,  we  have 
no  right  to  regard  them  as  in  any  peculiar  sense  surprising, 
or  as  marking  any  radical  defect  in  the  work  itself.  Take 
Calcutta  as  an  illustration  of  what  was  done.  We  entered 
the  city  without  a  dollar  in  the  shape  of  financial  resources. 
We  had  not  a  member  in  all  that  great  city  to  receive  us. 
Bishop  Taylor,  who  first  began  the  work  there,  spent  many 
long  months  preaching  in  a  chapel  which  had  been  kindly 
placed  at  his  disposal  by  a  Baptist  missionary  in  the  suburbs 
of  the  city;  but  his  labors  were  for  the  most  part  confined  to 
private  houses.  We  held  on,  and  step  by  step  our  work 
took  shape  and  developed,  until  now  we  have  the  largest 
place  of  worship,  not  only  in  Calcutta,  but  in  India,  and 
also  the  largest  congregation.  We  have  missions  among  the 
natives  in  three  different  languages — Bengali,  Hindustani, 
and  Ooriya — each  of  them  represented  by  an  organized 
church  of  Christian  believers.  We  have  adjoining  our  church 
one  of  the  finest  school-buildings  in  the  city,  which  accom- 
modates one  of  the  best  organized  and  most  largely  attended 
girls'  boarding-schools  in  Bengal.  We  have  a  boys'  school 
rapidly  advancing  to  a  like  position,  and  resources  have  re- 
cently been  put  within  our  reach  which  will  enable  us  to 
erect  a  similar  building  for  this  school.  We  have  a  mission 
press  in  active  operation,  a  mission  to  seamen,  a  Deaconess 
Home,  an  organized  work  among  women ;  and,  in  short,  we 
have  a  powerful  missionary  agency  at  work  in  this  city, 
nearly  all  of  which  has  been  developed  from  resources  which 
a  few  years  ago  were  hidden  from  our  view.  In  more  recent 
years  we  have  been  aided  by  missionary  funds  from  America, 
but  these  funds  have  been  sent  out  to  aid  in  work  which  had 
already  taken  shape,  and  the  amount  received  has  been  com- 
paratively small.  It  is  doubtful  if  throughout  the  whole 
United  States  any  instance  can  be  found  of  a  new  work, 
wholly  dependent  upon  the  resources  which  it  can  develop, 


308  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

which  has  ever  met  with  more  satisfactory  progress  than  this 
extensive  missionary  work  in  the  city  of  Calcutta. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  rapid  development  of  this  work 
in  Calcutta,  I  may  cite  the  case  of  the  two  churches  located 
in  that  city.  The  best  success  in  any  kind  of  Christian  work 
is  usually  dependent  upon  the  willingness  of  the  workers  to 
begin  to  build  on  the  most  humble  foundations.  If  they  wait 
till  somebody  else  achieves  success  for  them,  they  will  never 
prove  capable  of  carrying  on  the  work  put  into  their  hands ; 
and  if  they  hesitate  until  a  very  wide  aud  open  door  is  set 
before  them,  without  any  obstruction  whatever  in  the  way, 
they  will  wait  till  the  end  of  time  before  finding  one  wide 
enough  to  suit  their  notions.  Bishop  Taylor  had  worked  in 
the  city  nearly  a  year  before  he  succeeded  in  renting  a  small 
plot  of  open  ground  in  an  obscure  part  of  the  city,  called 
Zigzag  Lane.  The  name  of  this  lane  was  exactly  descriptive 
of  its  tortuous  windings,  and  in  all  Calcutta  it  would 
have  been  hard  to  locate  a  chapel  in  a  place  so  difficult  to 
find.  It  was,  however,  our  best  alternative  at  that  time. 
The  house,  a  picture  of  which  is  placed  as  an  object-lesson 
in  the  frontispiece  of  this  book,  was  built  in  the  most  primi- 
tive style,  bamboos  being  freely  used  in  its  construction. 
This  chapel,  or  tabernacle,  as  it  was  called,  soon  gave  place  to 
a  larger  chapel,  and  this  again  to  the  present  place  of  wor- 
ship. One  church  succeeded  another  so  rapidly  that  the 
third  and  last  of  the  series  was  finished  only  three  years  after 
the  completion  of  the  first  building. 

Very  unfortunately,  however,  at  an  early  period  a  serious 
mistake  was  made  in  connection  with  what  was  called  the 
new  policy  of  self-support.  As  said  above,  it  was  not  really 
new,  and  should  have  been  accepted  as  the  ordinary  Meth- 
odist policy  of  the  fathers,  and  applied  without  any  remark 
to  the  emergency  which  confronted  us  in  India.  "We  should 
have  planted  ourselves  firmly  upon  this  basis,  and  maintained 
that  we  were  attempting  nothing  new,  and  hence  deserved 
neither  praise  nor  censure  for  doing  that  which  we  had  learned 


HIDDEN  RESOURCES.  309 

in  the  school  of  our  fathers.  The  success,  however,  which 
attended  our  eiforts  led  us  into  the  serious  mistake  of  assum- 
ing that  there  was  merit,  or  virtue  of  some  kind,  in  the 
policy  itself,  which  would  make  it  succeed  under  all  circum- 
stances wherever  and  whenever  tried.  We  forgot  that  there 
is  no  inherent  power  in  any  policy;  and  no  greater  mistake 
can  be  made  than  to  assume  that  policy  is  another  name  for 
power,  just  as  it  can  never  be  assumed  that  a  law  can  en- 
force itself.  Hence,  on  the  one  hand,  we  had  the  unfortunate 
spectacle  of  a  party  of  earnest  men,  both  in  India  and  Amer- 
ica preaching  what  was  supposed  to  be  a  new  doctrine  of  self- 
support  ;  while  opposed  to  them  another  party  soon  came  to  the 
front,  denouncing  and  opposing  what  they  did  not  clearly  un- 
derstand, and  what  they  assumed  was  hostile  to  the  Missionary 
Society  in  America.  This  discussion,  which  even  now  has 
hardly  ceased,  was  unfortunate  from  the  beginning.  It  was 
to  a  great  extent  based  upon  a  misunderstanding,  and  at  an 
early  day  began  to  bear  fruit  which  neither  its  friends  nor 
opponents  anticipated.  The  term  self-support  has  been  used 
and  abused  until  it  has  become  almost  impossible  to  employ 
it  without  being  misunderstood.  Almost  everything  now 
goes  under  the  name  of  self-support.  Men  engaged  in  secular 
employment,  and  who  have  dropped  all  semblance  of  trust- 
ing in  the  providence  of  God  according  to  the  Saviour's  di- 
rections, are  loudly  professing  to  be  the  special  advocates  of 
the  system.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  industrial  support, 
which  is  praiseworthy  in  its  place,  and  in  many  instances  has 
proved  successful  in  helping  forward  missionary  work.  There 
is,  again,  such  a  thing  as  pastoral  support,  which  does  not 
differ  from  the  same  term  as  used  in  England  or  America; 
there  is  educational  support,  which  depends  upon  the  income 
of  schools ;  and,  lastly,  there  is  the  support  of  the  evangelist, 
such  as  that  described  above,  which  means  nothing  more 
than  that  the  man  who  goes  alone,  preaching  among  strangers, 
and  thrusts  himself  upon  their  hospitality,  is  so  guided  by 
God's  hand  that  he  finds  a  home  and  shelter  when  he  needs 


310  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

it,  and  is  able,  while  doing  his  work  among  the  people,  to 
realize  that  his  bread  and  his  water  are  assured  to  him. 
The  term,  however,  has  been  so  misunderstood,  and  has  be- 
come so  complicated  by  its  forced  association  with  all  manner 
of  schemes  and  plans  and  policies,  that  it  can  hardly  be 
used  at  all,  and  might  as  well  be  dropped  so  far  as  it  applies 
to  our  work  in  India. 

It  must  not  be  assumed,  however,  that  this  feature  of 
our  work  has  vanished  from  India.  It  has  left  its  influence 
permanently  upon  the  whole  of  our  vast  field,  and  its  spirit 
is  still  breathed  by  many  of  our  best  workers.  When  the 
somewhat  heated  controversy  which  grew  up  in  connection 
with  the  term  shall  have  been  forgotten,  the  influence  of  the 
blessed  spirit  of  devotion  which  was  evoked  at  the  time 
above  mentioned,  will  continue  to  be  felt  in  every  part  of 
our  wide  field.  We  still  have  men  and  women  in  India 
who  receive  no  financial  aid  from  any  foreign  land,  and  are 
dependent  upon  resources  found  in  the  country,  and  we  shall 
have  them  in  increasing  numbers  as  the  years  go  by.  We 
have  discovered  resources  here,  the  value  of  which  we  have 
learned  too  well  ever  to  throw  them  lightly  away ;  and  no 
one  henceforth  should  ever  say  that  the  missionaries  of  India 
have  abandoned  a  principle  which  they  once  loudly  pro- 
fessed. They  have  merely  learned  how  to  apply  the  princi- 
ple in  a  practical  way,  without  warping  it,  or  trying  to  con- 
fine it  in  a  cramped  and  iron-bound  system  which  would 
destroy  its  practical  worth. 

The  progress  of  our  work  in  India  has  brought  us  face 
to  face  with  another  emergency  even  more  pressing  than  the 
one  noted  above.  Of  late  years  our  converts  from  Hin- 
duism have  been  steadily  and  rapidly  increasing,  until,  as  I 
now  write,  they  are  literally  coming  to  us  at  the  rate  of  more 
than  a  thousand  a  month.  The  baptism  of  one  hundred  con- 
verts in  any  foreign  mission  invariably  entails  an  increase  of 
expenditure,  as  additional  schools  and  preachers,  or  assistants 
of  some  grade,  must  be  provided  for  them,  especially  when, 


HIDDEN  RESO  URCES.  3 1 1 

as  usually  happens,  they  live  in  different  towns  or  villages. 
For  many  years  the  Missionary  Society  gradually  increased 
its  appropriations  to  our  work  in  India,  so  as  to  enable  us 
to  keep  pace  with  the  growing  demands  which  were  made 
upon  us  as  our  converts  increased  in  number  and  became 
more  widely  scattered  over  the  country.  Of  late,  however, 
great  difficulty  has  been  experienced  in  obtaining  the  funds 
needed  to  meet  the  constant  expansion  of  the  work,  until  now 
it  seems  impossible  to  expect  the  Missionary  Society  to  keep 
full  pace  with  it  any  longer.  After  simplifying  our  methods, 
and  reducing  the  expenditure  to  the  lowest  possible  point,  we 
are  confronted  by  more  pressing  necessities  than  we  have 
ever  before  known.  A  thousand  converts  coming  to  us  in  a 
single  month  may  be  expected  to  live  in  twenty  or  thirty 
different  villages.  A  point  must  soon  be  reached,  if  indeed 
it  has  not  already  been  reached,  beyond  which  we  can  not  de- 
pend longer  on  money  from  America.  What  are  we  to  do  ? 
The  feeble,  untaught  converts  must  be  looked  after  and  care- 
fully instructed  in  all  that  pertains  to  Christian  doctrine  and 
Christian  living.  How  are  we  to  meet  this  demand  ? 

We  must  clearly  look  around  us  carefully  for  hidden  re- 
sources. As  yet  no  one  has  been  able  to  point  out  a  way 
which  is  not  beset  with  difficulties  of  some  kind ;  but  when- 
ever God  leads  his  people  into  a  narrow  strait  between  two 
impassable  barriers,  with  a  rolling  sea  in  front,  he  has  the 
gracious  design  in  view  of  causing  the  waters  to  divide,  and 
tracing  out  a  safe  and  sure  pathway  through  the  deep.  Am- 
ple resources  will  be  found — and  will  be  found  in  India — and 
the  duty  of  the  present  hour  is  to  look  carefully  while  God 
guides  us  to  them. 

If  we  turn  to  the  converts  themselves,  and  try  to  apply 
the  policy  which  proved  so  successful  in  our  work  among 
English-speaking  people,  we  are  at  once  baffled  by  difficulties 
found  nowhere  else  among  Christians  who  speak  our  own 
language.  The  mass  of  our  converts,  like  the  mass  of  the  na- 
tives of  India  generally,  are  very  poor.  Indeed,  the  word 


312  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

"  poor "  does  not  convey  any  idea  of  their  condition  to  the 
reader  in  America.  If,  for  instance,  in  an  ordinary  village 
congregation,  or  in  a  public  assembly  in  one  of  the  streets  of 
a  great  city,  a  collection  were  asked  for,  the  contributions 
would  consist  largely  of  cowries.  A  cowrie  is  a  small  shell 
used  as  currency,  and  which,  at  the  ordinary  rate  of  exchange, 
is  equal  in  value  to  about  one  eighty-fifth  of  a  cent.  If  a 
village  pastor  lived  on  eight  cents  a  day,  it  would  require 
hundreds  of  people  who  use  such  currency  to  support  him. 
In  the  face  of  such  poverty  as  this  indicates,  most  mission- 
aries and  missionary  societies  have  practically  given  up  all 
hope  of  making  converts  from  the  poorer  classes  self-sup- 
porting. When  it  is  considered  that  they  must  not  only  be 
provided  with  pastoral  oversight,  but  must  also  have  schools, 
and  be  supplied  with  books,  the  idea  of  expecting  any  ma- 
terial help  from  them  seems  utterly  wild.  And  yet  these 
poor  people  are  numbered  by  tens  of  millions,  and  the  most 
sanguine  friend  of  the  missionary  enterprise  can  hardly  hope 
that  the  churches  of  England  and  America  will  be  either 
able  or  willing  to  supply  funds  sufficient  to  meet  all  the 
wants  of  these  millions  when  they  become  Christians.  Re- 
sources must  be  found  somewhere,  and,  according  to  the 
gospel  spirit  and  to  all  the  indications  found  in  the  New 
Testament,  we  are  forced  to  look  even  to  these  very  poor 
people  for  resources  which  up  to  the  present  day  remain 
strangely  hidden. 

I  ought  not  to  use  the  word  "  hidden,"  at  least  in  an  ab- 
solute sense;  for,  to  some  extent,  God  has  already  shed  light 
upon  this  dark  problem.  Even  among  the  poorest  of  these 
people  there  are  resources,  although  they  do  not  exist  in  the 
form  of  gold  and  silver  currency.  In  the  first  place,  they 
can  furnish  labor.  They  can,  for  instance,  build  their  own 
simple  chapels.  When  in  America  a  year  ago,  a  benevolent 
preacher,  who  wished  to  help  the  people  in  providing  village 
chapels,  was  perplexed  and  bewildered  when  I  assured  him 
that  in  very  many  cases  a  small  sum  of  money — say  twenty 


HIDDEN  RESOURCES.  313 

or  twenty-five  dollars,  would  suffice  to  give  the  village  Chris- 
tians a  place  of  worship.  He  asked  me  what  was  the  price 
of  bricks,  and  was  astonished  when  I  told  him  that  in  very 
few  of  the  villages  had  such  a  thing  as  a  brick  ever  been  seen. 
"  What  then/'  he  asked,  "  is  the  material  which  they  use  in 
building?  Do  they  use  stone,  or  wood?"  I  assured  him 
that  they  depended  on  nothing  so  permanent  as  these.  The 
material  used  in  erecting  all  kinds  of  village  buildings  is, 
nearly  everywhere,  simply  mud.  A  place  is  sought  where 
clay  is  exposed  near  the  surface,  and  this  is  dug  up  and 
mixed  with  water;  but  instead  of  molding  the  mud  thus 
formed  into  bricks,  and  either  drying  them  in  the  sun  or  burn- 
ing them  over  a  fire,  it  is  built  into  the  wall  with  the  hand 
in  the  most  primitive  style,  and  the  wall  thus  constructed  is 
left  to  dry  in  the  sun.  Almost  any  man  can  lend  a  hand  at 
such  work  as  this.  The  buildings  are  covered,  for  the  most 
part,  with  thatch,  and  here  again  any  villager  can  be  of  use, 
if  not  in  thatching  the  house  itself,  at  least  in  collecting  or 
carrying  the  grass.  A  few  bamboos  to  support  the  roof,  and 
a  small  quantity  of  twine  for  binding  the  thatch,  will  com- 
plete all  the  material  needed  in  erecting  a  village  chapel. 
In  many  places  better  buildings  than  these  are  erected; 
but  it  is  becoming  plainer  to  us  every  day  that,  in  the  long 
run,  nine-tenths  of  the  people  must  be  expected  to  worship 
God  in  the  most  primitive  little  mud  chapels,  and  in  such 
cases  the  people  will,  no  doubt,  as  they  become  more  and 
more  zealous  and  devoted  to  their  Master,  be  found  equal  to 
the  task  of  erecting  their  own  places  of  worship. 

It  must  be  remembered,  also,  that  all  their  giving  needs 
not  consist  in  currency  of  some  kind,  not  even  in  the  cowries 
mentioned  above.  In  some  places  in  Bengal  I  have  found 
a  singular,  and  indeed  touching,  custom  prevailing  by  which 
a  very  considerable  amount  of  help  is  given  to  the  support 
of  native  pastors.  Each  housewife,  in  the  morning,  when 
she  takes  out  the  rice  for  the  day,  puts  aside  about  a  table- 
spoonful  toward  the  support  of  her  native  pastor.  This  is 


314  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

kept  in  a  bag  by  itself,  and,  although  a  small  spoonful  put 
in  every  morning  may  seem  to  be  a  very  humble  contribu- 
tion, yet,  at  the  end  of  the  month,  it  will  be  found  an  offer- 
ing not  to  be  despised.  While  very  many  of  our  converts 
are  too  poor  to  contribute  so  liberally  as  this,  yet  those  who 
are  cultivators  will,  in  most  cases,  be  able  to  do  a  little  in 
this  way.  Others,  again,  who  are  fishermen,  will  give  a  cer- 
tain quantity  of  fish  weekly ;  and  so  with  mechanics  of  va- 
rious kinds.  Each  will  be  able  to  contribute  a  trifle  ;  so  that, 
after  all,  the  people  will  not  be  found  so  absolutely  helpless 
as  may  at  first  appear.  It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  by 
and  by  the  Christians  will  be  found  in  overwhelming  num- 
bers all  over  the  plains  of  India,  and  when  these  all  stand 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  contribute  of  their  very  slender 
means  for  any  one  purpose,  they  will  be  able  to  do  more 
than  at  first  seems  apparent.  For  instance,  if  six,  eight,  or 
ten  villages  are  found  within  a  radius  of  three  or  four  miles, 
each  of  them  containing  fifty  to  one  hundred  Christian  fam- 
ilies, the  aggregate  would  amount  to  at  least  five  or  six  hun- 
dred families.  These  all  contributing  in  their  various  ways, 
and  according  to  their  limited  means,  would  be  able  to  sup- 
port a  pastor  in  what,  according  to  their  notions,  would  seem 
moderate  comfort.  This  pastor  could  go  from  village  to  vil- 
lage, performing  the  usual  duties  of  a  Christian  pastor,  while 
unpaid  class-leaders,  who  are  really  sub-pastors  in  the  several 
villages,  would  look  after  the  details  of  the  work.  This  is 
a  mere  outline  of  what  some  of  us  hope  to  see  realized  in  the 
early  future.  For  my  own  part,  I  see  nothing  impossible 
about  it.  I  ought  to  say,  however,  that  while  in  prosperous 
provinces,  like  Burma,  even  better  things  than  these  have  been 
realized  up  to  the  present  time,  the  whole  problem  remains, 
in  a  large  measure,  unsolved  so  far  as  the  poorer  people  of 
India  are  concerned. 

The  problem  of  the  present  hour,  so  far  as  our  own  work 
in  India  is  concerned,  is  to  know  how  to  develop  whatever 
resources  there  may  be  among  our  converts.  With  few 


HIDDEN  RESO  URCES.  315 

exceptions  they  are  so  very  poor  that  the  missionary  feels  his 
heart  sink  within  him  when  he  attempts  to  mention  the  sub- 
ject of  their  contributing,  out  of  their  extreme  poverty,  for 
the  work  which  he  is  trying  to  carry  on  among  them.  And 
yet  he  knows  that  something  of  this  kind  must  be  done 
before  Christianity  can  become  indigenous  to  the  country, 
and  before  their  own  best  Christian  life  can  be  developed. 
"We  shall  all  be  wiser  a  few  years  hence,  no  doubt;  but 
while  we  are  pondering  and  experimenting  and  thinking, 
God  in  his  providence  is  leading  us  forward,  and  perhaps 
the  people  themselves,  when  they  become  fully  awake  to  the 
difficulties  of  the  situation,  will  be  able  to  show  us  that  they 
have  resources  which  we  have  never  discovered,  and  of  which 
we  have  hardly  dreamed. 


XXIII. 

ENGLISH  WORK. 

THE  above  title  is  placed  at  the  head  of  this  chapter,  not 
because  it  is  grammatically  accurate,  but  simply  for  want 
of  a  better.  Reference  has  been  made  in  previous  chapters  to 
the  manner  in  which  missionary  work,  designed  in  the  first 
place  wholly  for  the  natives  of  the  soil,  interlaces  itself  at 
times  more  or  less  with  the  interests  of  the  English  resi- 
dents in  the  empire.  These,  of  course,  are  nominally  Chris- 
tians, and  it  is  but  natural  that  persons  in  England  and 
America  should  wonder  that  missionaries  whose  sole  work  in 
life  is  supposed  to  be  that  of  inducing  Mohammedans  and 
Hindus  to  become  Christians,  should  turn  aside  to  preach  to 
those  who  already  profess  to  be  followers  of  that  religion. 
The  missionary  himself,  however,  especially  if  he  remains  in 
the  country  long  enough  to  identify  himself  with  its  inter- 
ests, soon  discovers  that  the  letter  of  the  New  Testament,  as 
well  as  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  which  he  preaches,  refuses  to 
acknowledge  any  distinctions  which  are,  or  under  any  cir- 
cumstances may  be,  merely  nominal.  The  New  Testament 
deals  with  humanity  as  one  whole,  and  the  messenger  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  not  authorized  to  know  Jew  or  Gentile, 
Greek  or  Barbarian,  but  simply  man  as  man.  Hence  in  a 
hundred  ways  the  missionary  who  comes  in  contact  with 
English-speaking  people  in  India,  discovers  that  he  can  not 
dissociate  himself  wholly  from  them,  nor  logically  limit  his 
gospel  in  such  a  way  as  to  ignore  them. 

The  term  "  English,"  as  popularly  used  in  connection  with 
missionary  work,  is  made  to  include,  not  only  the  English 
people  who  have  come  out  from  Europe,  either  as  Govern- 
316 


ENGLISH  WORK.  317 

ment  servants  or  on  private  business,  but  also  the  descend- 
ants of  Europeans  of  past  generations.  Not  a  few  such 
families  are  scattered  all  over  the  empire.  They  are  pure 
Europeans  by  descent,  but  their  fathers  and  grandfathers,  and 
in  some  cases  great-grandfathers,  have  been  born  in  India. 
In  addition  to  these,  the  Eurasians,  who  are  scattered  every- 
where, and  who  constitute  a  large  proportion  of  the  English- 
speaking  people,  are  included  in  what  is  called  English  work, 
so  far  as  missionary  phraseology  is  concerned.  These  peo- 
ple are  more  numerous  than  those  of  pure  European  parent- 
age. Their  influence  in  the  country  has  been  a  subject  of  no 
little  dispute.  Some  writers  are  inclined  to  put  it  down  as 
nil.  Others,  animated  perhaps  by  unconscious  prejudice,  do 
not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  the  influence  of  the  Eurasian  com- 
munity is  against,  rather  than  in  favor  of  Christianity.  An 
oft-quoted  but  very  unjust  assertion  is  put  forward  in  nearly 
every  such  discussion,  to  the  effect  that  the  Eurasian — that 
is,  the  offspring  of  European  and  Asiatic  parents — combines 
the  vices  of  both  races,  without  having  the  virtues  of  either. 
Others,  again,  affirm  that  as  a  people  the  Eurasians  have 
virtues  of  their  own,  with  which  any  church  capable  of  ap- 
preciating them  would  be  enriched,  and  that  these  people,  who 
in  any  case  must  be  an  important  and  permanent  factor  of  the 
English-speaking  population,  ought  to  be  utilized  to  the 
utmost  possible  extent,  in  not  only  missionary  work,  but  in 
the  promotion  of  every  other  cause  which  good  men  have  at 
heart.  As  a  class  they  have  much  cause  of  complaint. 
While  employed  freely  in  Government  service  they  have,  for 
the  most  part,  been  kept  wholly  in  subordinate  positions. 
They  are  debarred  from  military  service;  they  are  subjected 
to  a  certain  kind  of  social  contempt — not  very  formidable,  it 
is  true,  and  yet  of  such  a  character  as  often  to  irritate,  and 
sometimes  to  injure,  those  who  are  made  its  subjects.  Edu- 
cated as  they  have  been,  and  hedged  about  by  adverse  in- 
fluences as  they  are  to  the  present  day,  it  is  not  strange  that 
comparatively  few  of  them  have  achieved  distinction.  As  a 


318  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

community,  however,  they  deserve  much  more  credit  than 
has  ever  been  given  them,  and  are  capable  of  doing  valuable 
service  in  the  great  work  to  which  God  is  calling  all  his  peo- 
ple in  India. 

In  addition  to  the  Europeans  and  Eurasians  in  India,  a 
few  representatives  of  purely  Indian  races,  composed  of 
persons  who  have  acquired  a  familiar  use  of  English,  may  be 
iound  more  or  less  closely  identified  with  the  Christian  com- 
munity. A  few  of  these  will  be  found  in  almost  every  con- 
gregation, attending  the  ordinary  Sunday  evening  service. 
In  large  cities  like  Bombay,  Calcutta,  and  Madras,  such  per- 
sons are  sometimes  present  in  considerable  numbers,  and 
from  among  them,  from  time  to  time,  conversions  to  Chris- 
tianity occur.  Of  late  years  not  a  few  Indians  are  adopting 
the  ordinary  European  costume,  and  when  away  from  home 
are  frequently  mistaken  for  Eurasians.  Such  persons  have  no 
objections  whatever  to  identifying  themselves  with  the  Euro- 
peans, unless  too  closely  pressed  in  the  matter  of  caste  or  re- 
ligion. 

The  whole  European  and  Eurasian  population  of  India  is 
not  only  relatively  very  small,  but  scattered  everywhere  over 
the  empire.  Only  in  a  few  of  the  larger  cities  can  a  large 
congregation  be  collected,  and  but  few  of  our  English-speak- 
ing churches  have  more  than  a  hundred  communicants.  This 
one  fact  presents  a  very  formidable  obstacle,  especially  in  the 
eyes  of  young  missionaries,  to  our  success  when  preaching 
among  these  people.  A  young  minister  fresh  from  the 
United  States  finds  it  difficult  to  regard  any  church  or  con- 
gregation as  of  any  special  account  unless  it  has  a  large 
congregation  present  at  the  Sabbath  service.  India  is  the 
last  country  in  the  world  to  which  a  young  preacher  who 
aspires  to  popularity  should  come.  The  missionary  must  be 
able  to  look  deeper,  and  see  more  clearly  the  ultimate  result 
of  such  work  as  he  is  called  upon  to  perform  in  the  English 
churches.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  the  young  missionaries 
who  have  engaged  in  this  department  of  our  work,  have 


ENGLISH  WORK.  319 

become  dissatisfied  with  it.  "  It  has  no  outcome,"  says  one. 
"  It  offers  us  no  future,"  adds  another.  "  It  amounts  to 
nothing,  and  never  will  amount  to  anything,"  chimes  in  a 
third.  "  If  I  have  to  preach  in  English,"  says  a  fourth,  "  I 
shall  return  to  my  own  country."  "  I  did  not  come  all  the 
way  to  India,"  adds  still  a  fifth,  "  in  order  to  find  a  little 
congregation  of  people  to  preach  to  in  English.  I  can  get 
plenty  of  congregations  in  my  own  country."  And  so  on, 
one  objection  follows  another,  until,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this 
kind  of  work  does  not  at  present  stand  in  very  high  favor 
among  us. 

Several  reasons  may  be  mentioned  which  account,  in  part 
at  least,  for  this  unfavorable  judgment  of  not  a  few  young 
missionaries.  In  the  first  place,  these  young  brethren,  when 
they  begin  their  work,  encounter  an  adverse  social  current, 
such  as  they  have  never  known,  and  perhaps  never  could 
know,  in  their  own  country.  In  a  few  of  the  larger  cities 
our  ministers  feel  the  force  of  a  current  somewhat  similar, 
but  not  so  powerful  as  that  which  is  encountered  in  India. 
I  refer  to  the  presence  in  every  city,  town,  and  remote 
country  station,  of  an  Established  Church.  The  Roman  Cath- 
olics and  the  Anglicans  divide  between  them  perhaps  four- 
fifths  of  the  English-speaking  people  in  India.  A  Methodist 
missionary  from  America,  coming  among  these  people,  is  ut- 
terly unconscious  of  the  deep  attachment  which  they,  with 
few  exceptions,  feel  for  the  church  in  which  they  have  been 
born.  They  may  not  care  much  for  religion  in  itself,  and  are 
perhaps  free  enough  to  go  and  hear  a  stranger  preach ;  but 
the  thought  of  separating  themselves,  even  nominally,  from 
the  church  of  their  fathers,  is  startling  enough  to  many  of 
them.  Then,  there  is  the  general  impression  that  it  is  not 
altogether  respectable  to  be  connected  with  a  dissenting 
church.  Only  those  Americans  who  have  visited  England, 
and  have  become  acquainted  with  the  various  phases  of  re- 
ligious thought  and  feeling  in  that  country,  can  understand 
how  much  it  costs  a  Churchman  to  identify  himself  with  a 


320  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

dissenting  body.  This  feeling  extends  almost  with  equal 
force  to  all  the  English-speaking  people  of  India;  and  the 
young  missionary  has  some  not  very  pleasant  lessons  to  learn 
before  he  can  understand  its  meaning.  I  have  myself  been 
called  out  of  bed  twice  in  the  same  night  to  visit  a  small- 
pox patient,  by  friends  who  seemed  to  appreciate  what  I  was 
doing  very  highly,  but  who,  after  the  death  of  the  patient, 
refused  to  let  me  officiate  at  the  funeral  because  I  was  a  dis- 
senter. This  kind  of  treatment  is  not  pleasing  to  the  flesh ; 
but  sensible  men  must  learn  to  accept  it  as  inevitable,  and 
pay  no  more  attention  to  it  than  they  do  to  the  prejudices  of 
Hindus  or  Mohammedans.  It  indicates  nothing  wicked  in 
itself;  and  if  we  would  do  the  greatest  possible  amount  of 
good  in  this  world,  we  shall  have  no  time  to  worry  about  the 
weaknesses  of  men  and  women  who  have  not,  perhaps,  en- 
joyed the  best  advantages. 

Another  discouragement  to  a  missionary  preaching  to  an 
English  congregation  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  people  are 
constantly  changing.  Many  of  them  hold  official  positions, 
either  under  Government  or  in  railway  service.  It  is  not  un- 
common for  a  man  to  be  removed  two,  three,  or  even  four 
times  in  a  year.  Others,  again,  are  constantly  returning  to 
Great  Britain  after  a  term  of  service  in  India,  and  their 
places  must  be  refilled.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  in  all  our 
English  churches,  that  the  membership  must  renew  itself 
every  five  years,  or  else  it  will  become  extinct.  It  requires  a 
plucky  pastor  to  work  successfully  and  cheerfully,  year  after 
year,  in  the  midst  of  a  people  who  are  thus  apparently  always 
slipping  away  from  him. 

Add  to  this  another  embarrassment  which  he  is  pretty 
sure  to  encounter,  if  he  retains  an  active  interest  in  missionary 
work.  Some  of  his  weaker  members,  noticing  from  time  to 
time  that  he  takes  an  active  interest  in  the  natives  of  the  soil, 
begin  to  feel  themselves  slighted,  and  complain  that  they  are 
neglected,  and  so  on.  If  the  pastor  is  sensible  and  moderately 
shrewd,  he  can  avoid  bringing  slight  evidences  of  hostility  to 


ENGLISH  WORK.  321 

a  head ;  but  sometimes  unfortunate  issues  are  raised,  and  for 
years  the  church,  which  it  is  hoped  will  prove  a  great  help  in 
missionary  work,  remains  practically  arrayed  against  it.  At 
such  times  the  missionary  can  hardly  be  blamed  if  he  feels 
like  washing  his  hands  of  all  such  work,  and  saying,  in  the 
language  of  Barnabas  and  Saul,  "  Lo,  I  turn  to  the  Gentiles." 

Probably  few  men  in  India  have  given  more  attention  to 
this  whole  subject  than  myself,  and  certainly  very  few  have 
had  more  experience  in  this  kind  of  work  in  all  its  various 
phases.  I  began  to  preach  to  the  English  people  at  Naini  Tal, 
when  I  first  arrived  in  the  country.  I  personally  experienced 
most  of  the  adverse  influences  enumerated  above;  and,  like 
other  young  men  who  in  more  recent  years  have  tried  this 
kind  of  work  and  given  it  up,  I,  too,  reached  a  point  where  I 
resolved  to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  it.  For  four  years 
I  carefully  and  conscientiously  refrained  from  preaching  in 
English,  but,  in  the  providence  of  God,  was  led  to  see  my 
error,  and  for  many  years  afterward  preached  quite  as  much 
in  my  own  tongue  as  in  Hindustani.  My  later  convictions 
remain  unchanged  to  the  present  day.  For  the  following 
reasons  I  believe  we  ought  to  carry  on  an  active  work  among 
the  English-speaking  people  of  the  empire,  and,  regarding 
this  department  of  our  work  as  permanent,  proceed  to  fortify 
our  position  as  rapidly  and  strongly  as  possible. 

In  the  first  place,  the  English  are  here.  India  belongs  to 
the  British  Empire,  and  whatever  God's  ultimate  designs 
concerning  these  people  may  be,  for  another  century  at  least 
the  predominating  influence  in  India  will  be  English;  and 
even  if  we  were  to  be  assured  that  the  great  British  Empire 
would  bestow  independence  upon  India  a  century  or  two 
hence,  or  something  equivalent  to  independence,  it  would 
not  change  the  fact  that  the  controlling  influence  would  be 
English  rather  than  Indian.  This  being  the  case,  the  im- 
mense influence  of  everything  English  ought  to  be  appre- 
ciated by  the  missionary  from  the  outset.  Even  though  the 
people  be  few,  though  the  English  papers  have  a  small  cir- 

21 


322  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

dilation,  though  the  English  congregations,  even  in  the  Es- 
tablished Church,  may  be  small,  yet  the  ultimate  influence 
of  these  people,  and  of  the  churches,  newspapers,  and 
schools,  will  be  unspeakably  great.  Hence  the  preacher 
who  looks  at  his  little  congregation,  and  longs  for  the 
more  attractive  church  in  which  he  might  be  preaching  in 
his  native  land,  is  anything  but  a  far-sighted  man.  The  man 
who  preaches  to  one  hundred  people  in  India  is  exerting  a 
greater  influence,  so  far  as  future  years  are  concerned,  than 
the  one  who  preaches  to  a  thousand  people  in  Chicago  or 
Cincinnati.  Any  one  of  the  American  Churches  might  sink 
out  of  sight,  and  its  influence  would  be  but  little  felt;  but  the 
extinction  of  a  church  of  one  hundred  members  in  an  Indian 
city  would  be  felt  as  a  calamity  for  years  and  years  to  come. 
A  single  little  tallow  candle  burning  in  a  very  dark  place,  is  of 
more  value  than  any  one  of  a  thousand  electric  lights  which 
glare  and  flash  in  the  midst  of  the  nightly  illumination  of  a 
great  city. 

The  importance  of  this  work  becomes  still  more  apparent 
when  we  consider  the  religious  situation  as  it  is  among  the 
English-speaking  people  of  India.  As  said  above,  a  very 
large  proportion  of  them  are  Roman  Catholics,  especially  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  country.  Of  the  remainder,  the 
great  majority  are  Anglicans,  nominally ;  but  during  the  past 
twenty  years  the  Church  of  England  has  so  far  fallen  under 
the  influence  of  the  Ritualistic  party,  that  thousands  of  its 
members  in  India  refuse  to  attend  longer  on  its  ministra- 
tions. Their  protest,  however,  is  not  likely  to  be  permanent. 
People  become  reconciled  to  whatever  is  customary,  and,  so 
far  as  the  present  outlook  is  concerned,  I  am  forced  to  believe 
that  the  future  Christianity  of  all  the  English-speaking 
classes  of  India  will  be  either  Roman  Catholic  or  Ritualistic, 
unless  an  evangelical  work  is  introduced  and  vigorously 
pushed  for  all  the  years  to  come.  Some  may  say  that  this 
would  make  little  difference ;  but  a  very  slight  observation 
of  the  influences  of  existing  churches  admonishes  us  other- 


ENGLISH  WORK.  323 

wise.  In  every  great  city  it  is  easy  to  perceive  that  the  In- 
dian Christians  are  fashioning  their  churches  and  all  theii 
institutions  after  the  model  of  the  Europeans  who  live  among 
them.  If  the  English  churches  are  ritualistic,  the  native 
churches  will  be  so  likewise ;  and  if  ritualistic  notions  pre- 
vail without  challenge  among  all  the  English-speaking  peo- 
ple, we  may  as  well  give  over  the  future  Christianity  of 
India  to  the  care  of  the  sacerdotal  party  at  once.  It  is 
our  duty  not  only  to  found  Christian  churches  in  India, 
but  to  provide  for  their  future  welfare.  Hence  I  regard  it 
as  a  sacred  duty — one  from  which  there  can  be  no  possible 
shrinking — that  vital  evangelical  Christianity  be  not  only 
established  all  over  India,  but  that  it  be  made  like  a  city 
set  upon  a  hill,  which  can  not  be  hid. 

Another  consideration  which  should  not  be  lost  sight  of, 
and  which  has  been  hinted  at  above,  is  the  fact  that  the  na- 
tives of  India  are  rapidly  becoming  Anglicized.  This  change 
has  become  increasingly  apparent  in  recent  years,  and  will 
almost  certainly  proceed  with  increasing  rapidity  as  time  goes 
by.  The  better  educated  classes,  when  alone,  do  not  converse 
in  their,  mother  tongues,  but  speak  exclusively  in  English. 
Public  meetings  composed  of  natives  exclusively  are  ad- 
dressed in  English,  and  in  very  good  English  at  that. 
Houses  are  beginning  to  be  furnished  in  English  style,  and 
English  literature  is  more  and  more  finding  its  way,  not 
only  into  public  reading-rooms,  but  into  the  homes  of  the 
better  educated  people.  In  view  of  this  fact,  it  would  be  un- 
fwise  in  the  last  degree  to  turn  our  backs  upon  what  we  are 
accustomed  to  call  our  English  work.  We  must  have  En- 
glish preachers  in  every  city,  and  expect  that  as  the  years 
go  by  the  number  of  our  English  congregations  will  increase 
rather  than  diminish.  These  churches,  however,  must  be 
of  a  very  high  order.  We  can  not  put  an  eloquent  man  in 
every  pulpit;  but  we  must  exhibit  a  clear  type  of  pure 
Christianity  before  the  people.  We  must  show  them  that 
we  are  not  contending  for  a  dogma,  but  for  a  life.  We 


324  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

must  have  such  churches  that  it  will  be  not  only  easy,  but 
safe,  for  the  native  Christians  to  accept  them  as  ecclesiastical 
and  spiritual  models,  and  we  must  expect  that  in  all  the  years 
to  come  this  department  of  our  work  will  be  kept  in  the  van- 
guard of  spiritual  progress. 

One  important  part  of  this  English  work,  and  perhaps  the 
most  important,  is  that  of  our  English  schools.  We  were  led, 
in  the  first  place,  to  open  these  schools  because  of  the  difficulty 
of  finding  education  for  our  people  where  their  children  would 
be  removed  from  sacerdotal  influences.  The  English  public 
schools  throughout  the  empire,  for  the  most  part,  fell  under 
ritualistic  influences  more  rapidly  than  the  pulpits.  All  of 
them  are  more  or  less  directly  subject  to  the  local  chaplain,  and 
some  of  these  gentlemen,  although  undoubtedly  sincere  and 
good  men,  have  mistaken  notions  about  their  own  preroga- 
tives, as  well  as  the  rights  of  parents  and  children.  When 
we  began  to  organize  English  churches,  it  frequently  hap- 
pened that  parents  would  come  to  us,  saying  that  their  chil- 
dren could  no  longer  attend  aur  Sunday-school,  under  pen- 
alty of  dismissal  from  the  day-schools  which  they  chanced 
to  attend.  We  were  forced  either  to  provide  a  school  of  our 
own,  or  see  our  children  thus  forcibly  taken  from  us;  and  in 
the  face  of  such  an  alternative  our  decision  was  soon  made. 
We  now  have  nine  large  boarding-schools  for  boys  and  girls, 
in  which  not  only  the  children  of  our  own  people  are  receiv- 
ing an  education,  but  large  numbers  of  others,  sometimes  in- 
cluding the  sons  and  daughters  of  Roman  Catholics,  and 
even,  in  a  few  cases,  of  Buddhists.  These  schools  have  given 
us  much  anxiety,  and,  as  we  have  been  chiefly  dependent 
upon  Indian  resources  in  building  them  up,  the  struggle  to 
maintain  them  has  been  a  severe  one  from  the  first.  Slowly, 
however,  they  are  gaining  ground,  and  in  time  will,  I  trust, 
be  placed  upon  firm  foundations.  Their  influence  will  be 
very  great  for  centuries  to  come,  not  only  in  our  own  com- 
paratively small  community,  but  in  strengthening  our  posi- 
tion and  enlarging  our  usefulness  in  other  circles.  The  boys 


ENGLISH  WORK.  325 

and  girls  who  are  educated  in  these  schools  go  out  from  us 
to  take  up  the  duties  of  life  in  remote  places,  and  not  a  few 
of  them  will  doubtless  prove  like  so  many  missionaries  sent 
to  towns,  or  even  provinces,  to  which  we  can  not  go  our- 
selves. The  schools  are  worthy  of  the  most  generous  support 
of  our  friends  in  America,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  whatever 
in  commending  their  interests  to  the  Christian  public. 

From  time  to  time  missionary  authorities,  both  in  Eng- 
land and  America,  manifest  a  somewhat  unreasonable  hostility 
to  work  of  this  kind.  In  some  cases  peremptory  orders  have 
been  sent  out  to  the  missionaries  who  have  been  engaged  in 
English-speaking  work,  to  desist  from  it  altogether.  "  What 
have  we  to  do  with  sending  the  gospel  to  our  own  country- 
men?" asks  an  indignant  supporter  of  missions  in  England. 
"You  have  everything  to  do  with  it,"  is  my  reply.  "You 
represent  a  gospel  which  is  broad  enough  to  embrace  all  hu- 
man interests,  and  it  is  not  for  you  to  limit  the  commission 
which  the  Master  has  given  to  all  his  servants."  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  however,  the  English-speaking  people  of  India, 
scattered,  as  they  are,  so  widely  that  it  is  impossible  for  any 
preacher  to  reach  them,  and  being  thus  deprived  of  the  re- 
ligious privileges  which  are  so  freely  enjoyed  in  England  and 
America,  are  but  poor  exemplars  of  the  life  which  Christians 
are  expected  to  live.  I  do  not  join  for  a  moment  in  the 
wholesale  denunciations  which  have  sometimes  been  poured 
out  upon  them  as  a  class;  but  I  speak  the  mournful  truth 
when  I  say  that  God's  name  has  too  often  been  profaned 
among  the  heathen  in  India,  as  Ezekiel  said  it  was  in  olden 
time,  and  it  becomes  an  imperative  duty  of  Christians,  both 
in  England  and  in  America,  to  see  that  their  countrymen  in 
India  receive  that  measure  of  Christian  care  which  they  not 
only  personally  deserve,  but  which  the  religious  situation  in 
India  makes  absolutely  imperative.  Some  of  the  blindest 
work  I  have  ever  known  to  be  done  by  good  Christian  men, 
has  been  accomplished  in  this  illogical  effort  to  keep  mis- 
sionaries from  helping  their  own  countrymen  in  India.  I  am 


326  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

glad  that  in  our  mission  a  wiser  policy  has  prevailed  in  re- 
cent years;  but  it  has  cost  us  more  than  one  contest  to  main- 
tain it.  Our  policy  has  not  met  with  the  uniform  approval 
of  all  our  friends,  either  in  America  or  in  India.  I  am  per- 
suaded, however,  that  in  this  work  we  have  been  led  from 
on  high.  As  indicated  in  a  previous  chapter,  our  work 
among  these  people  has  not  only  been  a  blessing  to  them,  but 
it  has  been  overruled  so  as  to  be  made  a  great  blessing  to  our 
cause  in  India.  Whatever  others  may  do,  there  will  be,  I 
trust,  no  retreat  so  far  as  we  are  concerned.  We  must  main- 
tain this  department  of  our  work  throughout  the  empire,  and 
maintain  it  strongly. 


XXIV. 

M1SSION:SCHOOLS.* 

THE  mission-school  in  some  form  is  inseparable  from  or- 
dinary missionary  work.  However  widely  the  mission- 
aries themselves  may  differ  concerning  the  best  school  policy, 
they  one  and  all  admit  that  sooner  or  later  the  mission- 
school  must  have  an  important  claim  upon  their  labor  and 
care.  For  a  dozen  years  past  a  very  earnest  controversy 
has  been  carried  on  both  in  India  and  in  the  home  lands,  es- 
pecially in  Scotland,  with  regard  to  the  proper  educational 
policy  for  missionaries  to  pursue.  The  Scotch  have  always 
taken  the  lead  in  school-work,  especially  in  its  higher  de- 
partments, and  as  they  have  not  reaped  as  rich  a  harvest  of 
converts  as  some  other  missions  which  have  pursued  a  differ- 
ent policy,  not  a  few  of  their  supporters  at  home  are  begin- 
ning to  protest  against  making  school-work  so  prominent, 
while  some  go  to  the  extreme  of  opposing  it  altogether. 
Dr.  Duff,  who,  taking  him  altogether,  was,  perhaps,  after  the 
death  of  Dr.  Carey,  the  most  prominent  man  in  the  mission- 
ary world,  was  best  known  as  the  founder  of  an  educational 
policy  which  has  been  closely  followed  by  many  good  and 
able  men  ever  since  he  clearly  pointed  out  the  way.  Arriv- 
ing in  Calcutta  in  1830,  he  quickly  and  clearly  perceived 
that  the  reading  and  thinking  men  of  the  future,  not  only 
in  Calcutta,  but  throughout  the  empire,  would  use  the 
English  language,  and  he  at  once  resolved  to  found  an  edu- 

*A  few  statements  made  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  written  by  an- 
other hand,  are  repeated  in  this  chapter;  but  they  are  brief  and  unim- 
portant. 

329 


330  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

cational  institution  of  a  high  grade,  in  which  the  best  pos- 
sible English  education  should  be  given,  but  so  thoroughly 
saturated  with  Christian  doctrine  that  it  would  be  impossible 
for  boys  and  young  men  to  pursue  the  course  without  ac- 
quiring a  thorough  knowledge  of  Christianity.  All  the 
world  has  heard  the  story  of  Dr.  Duff's  success,  so  far  as 
his  schools  were  concerned.  For  a  time,  also,  he  succeeded 
in  making  converts;  but  at  a  later  day  the  work  of  conver- 
sion was  arrested,  owing  to  causes,  however,  which  lay  alto- 
gether outside  of  the  schools  themselves.  Similar  schools 
and  colleges  were  founded  in  other  cities,  and  nearly  all 
missions  have  followed  more  or  less  closely  in  Dr.  Duff's 
footsteps  whenever  they  have  attempted  to  establish  schools 
of  a  high  grade  in  connection  with  their  work. 

In  opposition  to  this  policy,  it  is  affirmed  by  many  that 
the  school  should  follow  the  evangelist,  and  not  the  evan- 
gelist the  school,  and  that  the  same  amount  of  labor  which 
is  bestowed  upon  these  schools  and  colleges,  if  directed  to 
the  simple  work  of  preaching  the  gospel,  would  result  in 
perhaps  a  hundred-fold  more  conversions  than  have  been 
witnessed  in  educational  work.  As  always  happens  in  such 
controversies,  a  few  extreme  men  are  found  who  oppose  all 
schools  excepting  those  of  the  most  elementary  character, 
which  are  to  be  introduced  after  the  people  are  converted, 
chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  them  how  to  read  the 
word  of  God.  The  truth  of  this  controversy,  as  in  all 
similar  controversies,  is  found  midway  between  two  extremes. 
In  most  cases,  of  course,  the  evangelist  should  precede  the 
teacher,  but  in  some  notable  cases  he  finds  it  to  his  advan- 
tage to  follow  him.  Dr.  Duff  undoubtedly  did  a  great  work 
for  India,  not  only  as  a  missionary,  but  as  an  educationalist; 
and  in  all  the  thirty-three  years  which  I  have  spent  in  the 
country,  I  have  constantly  met  with  illustrations  of  the  far- 
reaching  influence  which  that  good  man  exerted  upon  the 
people.  He  also  proved  a  valuable  coadjutor  to  the  Govern- 
ment in  its  efforts  to  introduce  education  into  India.  Tak- 


MISSION-SCHOOLS.  331 

ing  him  altogether,  he  may  be  regarded  as,  in  an  important 
sense,  the  founder  of  English  education  in  the  country.  At 
the  same  time,  it  would  be  a  fatal  mistake  for  any  mission 
to  trust  exclusively,  or  even  in  a  very  large  measure,  to  edu- 
cational work.  In  many  places  it  is  found  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  introduce  schools  in  order  to  gain  the  ear  of  the 
people;  and  while  nothing  better  can  be  done,  every  wise 
missionary  will  use  the  school  as  the  best  agency  within  his 
reach.  The  best  missionary  policy  is  that  which  avails 
itself  of  every  agency  out  of  which  anything  good  can  be 
wrought. 

A  point,  however,  is  always  reached,  in  the  progress  of 
any  successful  mission,  where  it  becomes  absolutely  necessary 
to  do  less  and  less  for  schools  for  non-Christians,  and  more 
and  more  for  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Christian  converts.  In 
some  of  the  missions  in  India,  including  our  own,  this  stage 
of  progress  has  already  been  reached,  and  it  becomes  a  grave 
question  whether  we  should  any  longer  maintain  schools  ex- 
clusively for  non-Christian  pupils.  In  the  beginning,  in 
many  cases,  we  opened  these  schools,  and  with  difficulty  pre- 
vailed upon  the  boys  to  enter  them.  All  manner  of  expe- 
dients were  adopted  to  win  their  confidence  and  secure 
their  attendance.  That  state  of  things,  however,  has  long 
since  passed  away ;  and  now,  while  our  converts  are  multi- 
plying rapidly,  even  though  they  belong  mostly  to  the  de- 
spised classes,  we  can  place  our  schools  upon  a  better  footing. 
We  open  every  school  as  a  Christian  school  of  the  most  un- 
mistakable character.  We  admit  Christian  boys  as  pupils, 
and  all  the  instruction  given  is  such  as  would  be  expected 
in  a  school  of  the  most  thoroughly  Christian  character.  If, 
after  we  have  founded  such  an  institution,  Hindu  or  Mo- 
hammedan boys  wish  to  attend,  we  receive  them  gladly  and 
thankfully,  but  they  understand  from  the-first  that  they  con- 
fer no  favor  upon  us  by  their  coming.  We  accord  them  a 
privilege,  and  this  one  fact  gives  us  a  vantage  ground  in  ap- 
proaching them,  which  is  worth  everything  in  our  efforts  to 


332  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

set  Christianity  before  them  in  a  favorable  light.  They 
place  us  under  no  obligation  in  any  case,  while  we  have  it 
in  our  power  to  benefit  them,  both  for  this  world  and  the 
next.  In  fact,  it  may  be  accepted  as  settled  that  the  mission- 
school  of  the  future,  so  far  as  our  own  field  is  concerned,  will 
occupy  a  ground  far  in  advance  of  that  which  it  has  held  in 
the  past. 

Turning  now  to  the  organization  of  our  mission-schools, 
we  find  them  differing  very  widely  indeed  in  many  respects. 
The  Government  schools  throughout  the  empire  are  graded 
with  the  greatest  care,  and  the  raission-schools,  especially 
such  as  are  aided  from  Government  funds,  are  usually  organ- 
ized upon  the  same  or  a  similar  model.  Throughout  North 
India  the  Government  schools  are  divided,  in  the  first  place, 
into  lower  primary  and  upper.  After  this  comes  the  middle 
school,  which  is  carefully  graded  info  seven  different  classes. 
After  this  comes  the  high-school,  and  lastly  the  college. 
The  lower  primary  school,  even  when  under  the  direction  of 
a  Government  inspector,  is  often  a  rery  elementary  school 
indeed.  In  fact,  if  the  children  in  remote  and  illiterate 
neighborhoods  learn  to  read  and  write  a  little,  and  possibly 
add  a  knowledge  of  the  simple  rules  of  arithmetic,  the  in- 
spector is  satisfied.  The  teachers  employed  in  such  school? 
are  themselves,  if  not  illiterate,  at  least  untaught,  and  know 
nothing  about  the  improved  teaching  of  modern  times.  The 
boys  are  exceedingly  poor,  and  in  many  cases  are  not  able  to 
pay  for  school-books  or  even  pencils.  Those  who  can  afford 
it,  have  a  wooden  slate ;  that  is,  a  thin  board  carefully  smoothed 
on  both  sides,  and  in  size  and  shape  resembling  an  ordinary 
slate,  on  which  the  boys  write,  if  able  to  procure  ink,  wash- 
ing off  the  ink  after  the  board  is  once  filled.  A  still  more 
common  practice,  however,  is  that  of  heaping  up  a  small 
quantity  of  sand  beside  the  pupil,  who  lifts  a  little  of  the  sand 
with  his  hand,  and  sifts  it  lightly  over  the  board.  He  then 
proceeds  to  write  with  his  finger,  rubbing  out  mistakes  when 
they  occur,  and  sifting  more  sand  upon  the  board.  If 


MISSfON-SCHOOLS.  333 

unable  to  procure  a  board  for  the  purpose,  the  boy  simply 
sprinkles  a  little  of  the  sand  on  the  hard  ground  before  him, 
and  proceeds  to  write  and  cipher  as  cheerfully  as  if  provided 
with  pencil  and  slate. 

In  our  elementary  Christian  schools  we  are  obliged  some- 
times to  dispense  with  nearly  all  formality,  and,  in  the  absence 
of  a  school-room,  hold  our  little  schools,  either  in  some  shel- 
tered corner  among  the  village  houses,  or,  perhaps,  under  an 
adjacent  tree.  Most  of  our  converts  come  from  the  lowest 
classes,  whose  children  are  never  permitted  to  enter  Govern- 
ment schools  at  all.  I  say  never  permitted  ;  I  mean,  not  that 
there  is  any  Government  order  to  exclude  them,  but  that 
such  an  uproar  would  be  created  if  they  attempted  to  take 
their  places  among  the  boys  of  the  higher  castes,  that  the 
school  would  have  to  be  given  up.  The  teachers  do  not  de- 
sire such  pupils;  but  even  if  they  did,  they  would  not  be  able 
to,  protect  them  in  the  school.  The  poor  boys  have  been  ac- 
customed to  take  the  lowest  place  from  their  infancy,  and 
count  it  no  hardship  to  be  excluded  from  the  village  school. 
When  a  Christian  school,  however,  is  opened,  they  can  attend 
freely,  and  although  at  first  all  the  higher  caste  boys  will  stay 
away,  the  school  is  none  the  less  interesting  and  prosperous. 
As  soon  as  possible  a  mud-walled  hut  is  procured,  which 
serves  a  double  purpose  of  school  and  chapel.  But  in  the 
absence  of  any  building,  both  the  day-school  and  the  Sunday- 
school  are  often  held  under  a  tree,  or  even  under  the  open 
sky.  We  have  hundreds  of  these  little  schools  scattered  all 
over  the  country  among  the  remote  villages,  and,  as  might  be 
expected,  many  of  them  are  not  in  a  very  satisfactory  con- 
dition. We  do  not;  however,  feel  discouraged  on  this  ac- 
count, having  abundant  reason  to  be  satisfied  so  long  as  we 
know  that  the  young  people  will  learn  to  read  and  write. 
Even  so  limited  an  education  as  this  will  enable  them  to  com- 
mand respect  among  their  fellows,  and  place  their  feet  upon 
the  first  round  of  the  ladder  up  which  they  may  climb  to  a 
better  position.  We  hope  in  time,  and  I  trust  very  soon,  to 


334  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

systematize  this  school-work  so  that  qualified  inspectors  may 
be  appointed  to  go  among  the  schools,  examining  the  work  of 
the  teachers,  helping  them  by  pointing  out  improved  meth- 
ods, and  in  a  general  way  developing  and  superintending  the 
whole  work. 

I  Some  years  ago  Dr.  Goucher,  of  Baltimore,  well  known 
as  a  fast  friend  of  missions  to  the  heathen,  undertook  not 
only  to  support  about  one  hundred  village  schools,  but  also  to 
give  a  scholarship  to  the  most  promising  boy  or  girl  from 
each  school,  entitling  the  pupil  to  go  to  a  central  school  at 
Moradabad,  and  receive  an  advanced  education.  This  plan 
has  worked  admirably,  and  already  a  large  number  of  our  best 
wrorkers  have  gone  forth  from  these  schools.  As  we  year  by 
year  perfect  our  work,  I  hope  to  see  a  plan  somewhat  similar 
to  this  adopted  everywhere.  The  education  of  the  converts 
who  are  flocking  to  us  will  never  become  satisfactory  until  we 
not  only  teach  the  masses  to  read  and  write,  but  give  the 
more  promising  boys  and  girls  an  advanced  education,  so  that 
they  may  become  leaders  to  their  brethren  and  sisters.  The 
Woman's  Missionary  Society  first  enabled  us  to  test  this  kind 
of  work  by  supporting  a  boarding-school  for  girls  in  the  city 
of  Moradabad.  The  girls  were  brought  from  villages  in  the 
surrounding  district,  and  after  being  thoroughly  drilled  for 
two  or  three  years,  were  sent  back  to  their  village  homes  at 
the  time  that  they  entered  upon  their  married  life.  Very 
many  of  these  girls  are  now  useful  women  in  their  villages, 
and  their  influence  has  been  found  to  be  so  marked  that  many 
.of  them  might  be  regarded  as  veritable  missionaries,  sup- 
ported without  cost  to  anybody,  and  yet  doing  a  valuable 
work  in  their  respective  villages. 

In  establishing  boarding-schools,  both  English  and 
Hindustani,  we  are  obliged  to  recognize  the  different  grades 
of  society  which  exist  in  India,  and  provide  schools  which 
will  be  accessible  to  all  classes.  First  of  all,  we  have 
orphanages,  in  which  hapless  little  children  who  otherwise 
would  be  left  to  wander,  if  not  to  perish,  on  the  highway,  are 


MfSSfON-SCHOOLS.  335 

gathered  in,  fed,  clothed,  and  educated.  They  are,  of  course, 
supported  on  the  cheapest  possible  basis,  and  although  they 
are  always  well  fed,  and  according  to  the  standard  of  India 
well  clothed,  yet  even  the  poorest  of  our  Christians  do  not 
care  to  send  their  children  to  be  associated  with  them. 
Some  reasons  exist  for  their  aversion  to  doing  so,  and 
whether  we  regard  them  as  satisfactory  or  not,  we  are  forced 
to  recognize  them.  The  people  wish  boarding-schools  apart 
from  the  orphanages,  in  which  their  children  may  secure  what 
in  India  is  regarded  as  an  advanced  education.  We  accord- 
ingly provide  a  second  grade  of  school,  a  little  above  the 
orphanage,  and  yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  not  differing  from 
it  so  far  as  the  quality  of  the  food  or  clothing  is  concerned. 
The  children,  however,  are  more  respectable,  and  nearly  all 
are  sent  to  the  school  by  their  parents,  although  most  of 
them  are  supported  by  funds  from  America.  The  best 
schools  of  this  grade  which  we  have  are  in  the  city  of  Mo- 
radabad.  The  one  for  girls  contains  about  150  boarders, 
who  are  supported  at  an  average  cost  of  about  $1.50  a  month 
for  each  pupil.  This  sum  covers  all  expenses,  including  food, 
tuition,  books,  washing,  servants,  etc.  The  similar  school 
for  boys  in  Moradabad  is  a  little  more  expensive,  but  does 
not  materially  differ  from  the  girls'  school.  Next  above 
these  institutions  we  have  in  the  city  of  Lucknow  two  high- 
schools,  each  of  which  has  recently  been  advanced  to  the 
college  grade.  The  charge  in  these  institutions  is  about  $2.50 
a  month,  and  the  style  of  living  is  correspondingly  higher 
than  in  the  Moradabad  schools.  The  reader  in  America  may 
impatiently  exclaim  against  making  these  distinctions,  but  we 
have  long  since  learned  that  it  is  useless  to  fight  against  either 
wind  or  tide.  The  people  of  India,  like  the  people  of 
America,  will  send  their  children  to  schools  which  are  near- 
est to  their  own  social  level.  The  very  poorest  can  not  send 
to  the  more  expensive  school,  and  those  who  are  compara- 
tively well  off  will  not  send  to  the  cheaper  school.  It  is  best 
for  us  to  recognize  facts,  and  push  ahead,  and  do  our  work 


336  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

without  stopping  to  attempt  the  impossible  task  of  making 
them  all  go  together. 

Next  above  the  Lucknow  schools  we  have  a  grade  of 
English  boarding-schools,  in  which  the  charge  is  sixteen 
•rupees  a  month.  The  schools  of  this  grade  are  chiefly  pat- 
ronized by  European  and  Eurasian  parents;  but  a  few  of  the 
native  Christians  who  are  able  to  afford  it,  send  their  children 
also,  and  from  year  to  year,  I  doubt  not,  the  number  of  such 
will  steadily  increase.  Then  above  these  we  have  a  still 
higher  grade,  so  far  as  the  style  of  the  school  is  concerned, 
In  which  the  charges  are  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  rupees  a 
month.  If  we  would  reach  all  India,  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest  classes  of  society,  we  must  make  a  provision  some- 
what after  this  style.  Our  friends  in  America  need  not 
trouble  themselves  with  the  thought  that  we  are  thereby  add- 
ing greatly  to  the  expense  of  our  educational  work ;  for  our 
schools,  if  properly  conducted,  receive  all  the  pupils  they  can 
provide  for.  We  would  have  to  have  the  same  number  in 
any  case. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  two  colleges  at  Lucknow.  That  for 
boys  is  called  the  Lucknow  Christian  College.  It  existed 
first  as  a  Christian  boarding-school,  then  became  a  high- 
school,  and  in  1887  was  affiliated  with  the  Calcutta  Univer- 
sity as  a  college.  Dr.  Waugh  had  charge  of  the  high-school 
for  two  years  during  its  earlier  history ;  but  the  institution 
has  been  for  the  most  part  identified  with  the  life  and  labors 
of  the  late  Dr.  B.  H.  Badley.  His  work  as  a  missionary,  in- 
deed, was  largely  interwoven  with  the  interests  of  this  col- 
lege. It  was  the  child  of  his  prayers,  and  of  his  constant 
thoughts,  and  of  his  unremitting  labors;  and  as  long  as  the 
college  endures  his  name  will  be  associated  with  it.  This 
college  should  be  liberally  sustained,  and  its  resources  in- 
creased without  delay.  The  highest  welfare  of  our  Church 
in  India  depends,  in  a  large  measure,  on  the  success  of  this 
institution. 

The  Woman's  College  in  Lucknow  is  the  outgrowth  of  a 


MISSION-SCHOOLS. 


337 


girls'  boarding-school,  which  was  founded  by  Miss  Thoburn 
in  1870.  At  that  time  there  were  very  few  schools  of  a 
high  grade  for  Christian  girls  in  India.  The  impression  pre- 
vailed widely,  even  in  missionary  circles,  that  native  girls 
did  not  need  more  than  a  very  elementary  education.  The 
opening  of  a  boarding-school  in  which  a  good  English  edu- 
cation was  to  be  given  at  once  attracted  attention  in  our  part 
of  India,  and  the 
school  prospered  from 
the  first.  Indeed,  at 
that  time  there  was 
only  one  similar 
school  north  of  Cal- 
cutta— the  excellent 
boarding  -  school  at 
Dehra  Dun,  under 
the  care  of  the  Amer- 
ican Pre  sbyteriau 
Mission.  The  school 
was  affiliated  with  the 
Allahabad  Univer- 
sity in  1886.  Its 
school  department  is 
thronged,  and  a  large 
entrance  class  has 
recently  been  en- 
rolled— that  is,  can- 
didates for  admis- 
sion to  the  freshman 
class.  The  College  Department  has  but  few  pupils,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  very  few  Indian  girls  remain  unmarried 
long  enough  to  pursue  a  college  course,  as  well  as  to  the 
other  fact  that  hitherto  it  has  been  considered  altogether 
exceptional,  if  not  indeed  impossible,  for  a  young  woman 
to  pursue  a  college  course.  Among  the  teachers  in  the 
College  Department  is  Miss  Lilavati  Singh,  B.  A.,  who 

22 


MISS  UIvAVATI  SINGH,  B.  A. 


338  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

was  educated  in  the  school,  but  subsequently  took  her  de- 
gree of  Bachelor  of  Arts  in  Calcutta.  AVe  hope  to  see  her 
occupying  the  position  of  a  professor  in  the  college  at  an 
early  day.  I  may  add  that  this  college  is  the  first  Christian 
woman's  college  ever  established  in  Asia. 

While  speaking  of  these  colleges,  it  may  be  proper  to 
give  a  brief  account  of  our  theological  seminary  and  normal 
school  at  Bareilly.  The  need  of  such  an  institution  had  been 
felt  from  the  first;  but  we  were  not  able  to  make  a  begin- 
ning until  1872,  when* a  timely  donation  of  $20,000,  given 
by  the  Rev.  D.  "W.  Thomas,  made  the  founding  of  such  an 
institution  possible.  A  small  house,  which  had  been  built  for 
a  native  preacher's  family,  was  made  to  furnish  lecture-rooms, 
while  some  cheap  buildings  that  had  been  erected  for  native 
Christians  were  utilized  for  students'  dormitories.  Four  years 
later  Mr.  Philo  Remington,  of  Ilion,  New  York,  gave  five 
thousand  dollars  to  aid  in  the  erection  of  more  suitable  build- 
ings; and  with  this  sum  duplicated  by  the  Missionary  Society, 
"  Remington  Hall "  was  completed  and  furnished.  It  is  a 
brick  structure,  consisting  of  a  central  cruciform  hall,  sur- 
rounded by  four  class-rooms,  filling  out  the  building  as  a 
square,  with  a  large  library  and  reading-room  on  the  top.  To 
the  left  of  this  building,  in  1890,  a  structure  of  one  story, 
uniform  in  style,  and  consisting  of  two  lecture-halls,  was 
completed.  The  plan  now  is  to  build  a  similar  one  to  the 
right  as  soon  as  funds  can  be  secured.  The  three  years'  course 
of  study  pursued  in  this  school  is  substantially  that  of  any 
theological  seminary  in  the  United  States,  except  that  not  so 
much  is  made  of  Hebrew  and  Greek.  The  institution  has 
sent  out  198  Indian  missionaries  and  48  Christian  teachers.' 
These  workers  are  widely  scattered  among  a  population  equal 
to  that  of  the  United  States.  The  present  attendance  in  the 
school  is  66  in  the  Theological  Department,  and  23  in  the  Nor- 
mal Department,  making  a  total  of  89.  The  teaching  staff 
consists  of  one  American  missionary,  assisted,  to  some  extent, 
by  an  American  missionary  stationed  in  Bareilly,  and  five 


MISSION-SCHOOLS.  339 

Indian  teachers.  It  has  been  felt  for  some  time  that  an  ad- 
ditional missionary  ought  to  be  given  to  this  work. 

The  present  endowment  of  the  institution  is  about  $50,- 
000,  with  buildings  valued  at  $16,500.  At  least  $50,000 
more  should  be  added  immediately  to  the  endowment.  A 
large  part  of  the  income  from  this  endowment  is  used  in  sup- 
porting the  students,  over  half  of  whom  have  no  resources 
of  their  own.  Young  men  in  India  can  not  resort  to  the 
various  expedients  which  are  so  commonly  employed  by  stu- 
dents in  America  when  working  their  way  through  college. 
Labor  is  so  cheap,  and  the  labor  market  so  overstocked  in 
every  direction,  that  it  would  be  vain  for  students  to  make 
such  an  attempt.  Liberal  Christian  friends  in  America  could 
not  do  a  better  work  than  add  to  the  endowment  of  this  ex- 
cellent and  indispensable  institution. 

Dr.  T.  J.  Scott  has  been  principal  of  our  theological  sem- 
inary throughout  nearly  all  its  history,  and  has  become  so 
closely  identified  with  it,  that  it  may  be  regarded  as,  in  an  im- 
portant sense,  his  own.  He  has  been  wholly  devoted  to  this 
one  work  for  many  years,  and  is  admirably  adapted  to  the 
position.  He  has  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  Hindustani, 
and  a  more  correct  and  fluent  use  of  it,  than  is  common 
among  missionaries,  while  his  theological  and  general  train- 
ing make  him  an  invaluable  man  in  any  missionary  capacity, 
but  specially  fits  him  for  the  principalship  of  a  theological 
school. 

I  can  not  close  this  chapter  without  noticing  a  peculiar 
adjunct  to  this  theological  school  in  the  shape  of  a  training- 
school  for  the  wives  of  the  students.  This  feature  of  the 
seminary  might  possibly  be  copied  with  advantage  at  least  in 
one  of  our  theological  schools  in  America,  where  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  students  are  married  men.  Mrs.  Scott  takes 
charge  of  a  woman's  training-school,  and  perhaps  is  accom- 
plishing as  much  good  in  this  exceptional  way  as  even  her 
husband,  who  instructs  the  young  men.  While  these  young 
men  will  fill  the  leading  pulpits  of  our  Hindustani  Church 


340  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

in  coming  years,  their  wives  will  have  very  much  to  do,  not 
only  in  molding  the  character  of  the  congregations,  but  in 
influencing  the  characters  of  the  preachers  themselves.  In 
any  country  such  training  would  be  invaluable  to  the  wives 
of  Christian  ministers;  but  in  India  especially,  where  the  peo- 
ple have  so  much  yet  to  learn  about  family  virtues  and  the 
Christian  home-life  in  its  best  aspects,  the  value  of  such  a 
school  can  not  be  too  highly  estimated.  At  the  present  time 
forty-five  women  are  receiving  instruction  in  Mrs.  Scott's 
school.  Some  of  these  are  women  of  rare  character,  and  give 
promise  of  great  usefulness  in  future  life. 


Cl>apber   XXV. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS  IN  INDIA. 

IN  the  earlier  days  of  our  missionary  work  in  India  it  was 
difficult,  and  in  most  cases  impossible,  to  do  much  Sun- 
day-school work,  owing  to  the  lack  of  juvenile  material.  The 
native  Christians  were  few  in  number,  and  while  in  every 
station  where  a  dozen  of  their  children,  or  even  of  the  older 
people,  could  be  collected,  we  organized  Sunday-schools,  yet 
for  the  first  ten  years  or  more  these  schools  were  all  small, 
except  in  the  stations  where  we  had  orphanages  on  which  we 
could  draw  for  attendance.  It  frequently  occurred  to  us 
that  a  very  great  expansion  of  the  work  could  be  made  if 
only  the  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  boys  could  be  induced  to 
attend.  As  for  girls,  the  habits  and  prejudices  of  the  coun- 
try were  such  that  we  accepted  it  as  settled  that  little  or 
nothing  could  be  done  for  them  during  the  present  genera- 
tion. It  was  difficult  enough  in  some  places  to  induce  boys 
to  attend  a  day-school,  especially  if  it  were  known  that  read- 
ing the  Bible  was  an  unvarying  condition  of  attendance. 
When,  however,  the  little  fellows  became  familiar  with  our 
school  methods,  and  listened  without  fear  or  suspicion  to  the 
opening  prayer,  and  joined  not  only  in  reading  the  Bible  les- 
son, but  in  studying  it  carefully,  and  memorizing  verses  of 
Scripture,  they  were  able  to  draw  a  clear  line  between  this 
procedure  and  anything  which  partook  exclusively  of  the 
character  of  Christian  teaching  or  worship.  They  were  fa- 
miliar with  our  Sunday  services,  not  only  from  hearsay,  but 
from  occasional  visits.  Many  of  them  would  at  times  drop 
into  the  mission  chapel  to  listen  to  the  singing,  or  to  see  our 
manner  of  conducting  Christian  worship.  They  were  pres- 

341 


342  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

ent,  however,  solely  as  spectators,  and  in  every  instance  where 
an  attempt  was  made  to  induce  them  to  take  any  part  in  the 
singing,  or  to  become  regular  attendants,  it  always  ended  in 
a  panic  which  did  more  harm  than  good.  We  had  all,  there- 
fore, come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Sunday-school,  "however 
valuable  an  agency  it  might  prove  in  the  future,  was  beyond 
our  reach  for  the  present,  except  so  far  as  the  little  Christian 
community  was  concerned. 

In  the  year  1868  I  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  mission 
in  Garhwal,  and  established  a  boarding-school  for  boys  at 
Paori,  our  central  station  in  that  province.  These  boys  were 
all  Hindus,  and,  in  order  to  preserve  their  caste  distinctions 
intact,  arranged  for  their  own  food,  and  lived  in  buildings 
erected  by  the  mission.  They  were  separated  for  the  time 
from  their  friends,  and  were  thus  directly  under  our  influ- 
ence. Nearly  all  of  them  had  come  from  remote  villages, 
and  had  never  seen  or  heard  anything  of  Christianity  until 
taking  up  their  residence  with  us.  In  opening  the  school,  I 
assumed  at  the  outset  that  the  Sunday-school  was  a  part  of 
the  ordinary  routine  of  the  institution,  and,  without  com- 
manding the  boys  to  be  present,  quietly  assumed  that  they 
would  come.  Without  an  exception,  they  all  put  in  an  ap- 
pearance, and  during  the  two  years  in  which  I  was  in  charge 
of  that  station,  the  Sunday-school  embraced  not  only  the 
Christians,  but  also  all  the  boys  of  the  boarding-school. 
This  example  was  suggestive ;  but  the  circumstances  were  so 
exceptional  that  it  was  not  thought  best  to  repeat  that  ex- 
periment elsewhere.  A  great  change,  however,  was  close  at 
hand,  and  early  in  the  year  1871  we  discovered,  on  the  one 
hand,  that  the  -extreme  timidity  and  suspicion  of  the  people 
had  been  giving  way  to  an  extent  which  we  had  not  realized, 
and,  on  the  other,  that  we  ourselves  had  all  along  been  pay- 
ing more  respect  to  this  timidity  than  it  really  deserved. 
The  great  Sunday-school  work  in  which  our  missionaries 
have  since  been  engaged,  so  far  as  the  incorporation  of  non- 
Christians  into  the  schools  was  concerned,  took  its  origin  in 


SUNDA  Y-SCHOOLS.  343 

a  very  simple  way.  Bishop  Taylor  was  then  holding  meet- 
ings in  Lucknow  as  an  evangelist.  He  knew  nothing  of  In- 
dia, and  was  wholly  unable  to  appreciate  the  extreme  aver- 
sion of  the  people  to  anything  which  might  seem  to  commit 
them  to  a  participation  in  Christian  worship.  One  day, 
when  a  number  of  school-boys  were  in  one  of  his  meetings, 
where  he  was  about  to  preach  through  an  interpreter,  he  dis- 
covered that  some  of  the  boys  understood  a  little  English. 
He  accordingly  began  to  sing  a  simple  hymn  to  them,  and, 
after  repeating  a  few  couplets  a  number  of  times,  it  was  ob- 
served that  a  number  of  the  boys  were  beginning  to  sing 
with  him.  Thus  encouraged,  he  went  on,  urging  the  boys, 
from  time  to  time,  to  sing;  and  while  the  spectators  were 
both  interested  and  very  much  amused,  a  discovery  was  made 
which  proved  to  be  of  the  utmost  importance  to  our  work. 
That  discovery  was  the  fact  that  non-Christian  boys  could  be 
induced  to  sing  Christian  hymns  without  creating  a  panic 
either  in  our  schools  or  among  the  people  outside. 

It  so  chanced  that  the  Rev.  Thomas  Craven  had  recently 
arrived  from  America,  and  was  just  entering  upon  his  work 
as  a  missionary  in  the  city  of  Lucknow.  Mr.  Craven,  like 
Bishop  Taylor,  knew  little  or  nothing  of  the  prejudices  of  the 
people,  or  of  the  extreme  caution  which  had  previously  been 
observed  lest  these  prejudices  might  be  aroused.  He  was 
present  when  the  boys  made  their  first  attempt  to  sing  in  the 
meeting  mentioned  above,  and  at  once  resolved  to  act  upon 
the  discovery  which  was  then  made.  Going  out  into  the 
street,  he  began  to  gather  a  few  little  fellows  around  him 
wherever  he  could,  and  interested  and  amused  them  by  sing- 
ing simple  couplets  of  Christian  hymns  to  some  of  their  own 
familiar  Hindustani  tunes.  Both  boys  and  older  people 
were  pleased  and  interested  to  hear  a  European  singing  in 
this  manner,  and  very  soon  he  would  be  surrounded  by  boys 
eager  to  hear  him.  Little  by  little  he  induced  these  boys  to 
join  in  singing,  and  as  the  tunes  were  not  foreign,  but  their 
own  familiar  airs,  they  saw  no  harm  in  singing  them.  The 


344  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

language,  in  many  cases,  was  such  as  could  be  used  by 
Hindus  as  well  as  Christians.  In  a  week  or  two  Mr.  Craven, 
who  chanced  to  have  charge  of  our  Sunday-school  work  in 
Lucknow,  began  to  hold  Sunday-schools  in  the  rooms  oc- 
cupied by  our  day-schools  in  different  parts  of  the  city, 
and  by  taking  a  few  boys  who  could  sing,  he  secured,  not 
only  the  attention  of  the  older  people  of  the  neighborhood, 
but  their  favorable  consideration.  The  whole  thing  was  new 
to  them,  and  presented  itself  as  apparently  but  another  phase 
of  the  ordinary  school-work  which  they  knew  was  carried  on 
in  the  buildings  throughout  the  week.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
a  large  measure  of  the  success  which  Mr.  Craven  achieved 
during  that  eventful  year  was  owing  to  his  own  ignorance  of 
the  prejudices  of  the  people.  We  had  all  been  standing  too 
much  in  awe  of  this — on  the  one  hand,  perhaps,  not  observing 
carefully  enough  the  change  in  public  sentiment  which  had 
been  going  on,  and,  on  the  other,  not  trusting  enough  in  the 
power  of  Christian  effort  when  courageously  undertaken  on 
the  simple  lines  which  Christian  workers  are  usually  called 
to  follow. 

Before  the  close  of  1871  we  had,  perhaps,  a  dozen  Sunday- 
schools  organized  and  in  successful  operation  in  the  city  of 
Lucknow  alone.  These  Sunday-schools  were,  however,  little 
more  than  Christian  singing-schools  of  the  most  elementary 
character.  In  fact,  song  was  almost  everything  at  first.  "We 
cared  little  for  the  conventional  routine  of  Sunday-schools  in 
Christian  lands,  provided  we  could  get  the  boys  to  attend 
and  secure  a  favorable  hearing  for  the  message  which  we 
gave  them.  From  the  first,  however,  each  school  was  opened 
with  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  closed  by  a  short  address  from 
the  superintendent.  This  address,  especially  when  the  super- 
intendent had  a  familiar  use  of  the  Hindustani,  would  often 
take  the  form  of  a  brief  sermon,  and  as  the  doors  and  win- 
dows of  the  school-rooms  were  always  crowded  with  adults 
eager  to  see  the  novel  spectacle  within,  the  superintendent 
had  an  excellent  opportunity  for  preaching.  As  time  went 


SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.  345 

on,  a  better  organization  of  the  schools  was  effected,  and  they 
became  more  worthy  in  every  respect  of  the  name  which 
they  bore.  The  good  work  was  extended  also  to  the  girls, 
as  far  as  circumstances  would  permit.  Not  only  in  the 
zenanas  of  the  city,  where  small  schools  had  been  carried  on, 
but  among  the  lower  classes  in  a  more  open  way,  wherever 
a  day-school  had  been  held  a  Sunday-school  was  established, 
and  as  many  women  and  girls  gathered  into  it  as  possible. 
Then  as  now,  however,  these  schools  for  girls  were  relatively 
not  only  few  in  number,  but  much  smaller  than  those  for 
boys.  This  is  a  difficulty  which  can  only  be  overcome  by 
time.  With  the  exception  of  very  small  children,  parents 
will  not  permit  their  girls  to  go  very  far  from  their  own 
doors  to  attend  a  Sunday-school,  or  any  other  gathering,  no 
matter  how  attractive  it  may  be. 

At  that  time  our  English  church  in  Lucknow  had  a  mem- 
bership which  perhaps  did  not  exceed  fifty  persons.  These 
persons  were,  however,  Christians  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word,  and  many  of  them  engaged  in  the  new  Sunday-school 
work  which  had  been  opened  in  the  city  with  a  zeal  and  suc- 
cess which  I  have  never  since  seen  equaled  in  India  or  else- 
where. By  the  close  of  the  second  year  we  had  more  than  a 
thousand  children  in  Sunday-school  in  the  city  of  Lucknow 
alone,  and  the  superintendence  and  most  of  the  teaching  of 
these  schools  was  the  voluntary  work  of  the  members  of  our 
English  church.  At  that  time  we  had  just  commenced  our 
outward  movement  among  the  English-speaking  people  of 
India,  and  as  I  looked  at  what  was  done  in  Lucknow,  I  was 
led  to  cherish  the  brightest  hopes  for  the  future  of  our  work 
in  India,  when  English  churches  of  like  character  should  be 
established  in  every  city,  and  all  the  people  thus  enlisted  in 
direct  missionary  work.  These  hopes,  I  regret  to  say,  have 
not  been  realized,  nor  has  the  good  work  that  was  commenced 
by  the  members  of  our  English  church  in  those  early  days 
been  kept  up,  as  we  had  fondly  expected.  A  few  of  those 
same  members  who  yet  linger  among  us  are  still  found  at 


346  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

their  posts,  but  unhappy  controversies  sprang  up  in  later 
years,  and  the  good  feeling  which  at  first  prevailed,  was  in- 
terrupted more  than  once  by  influences  which  perhaps  were 
inevitable,  but  which  were  none  the  less  deplorable.  I  still, 
however,  cling  to  the  hope  and  belief  that  when  all  the  Eu- 
ropean Christians  of  India,  who  are  really  true  believers,  are 
led  to  see  their  opportunity  and  their  duty  in  this  matter,  they 
will  rise  up  in  their  strength  and  do  wonders  in  giving  the 
gospel  to  the  millions  of  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  among 
whom  they  live. 

From  Lucknow,  as  a  center,  this  new  Sunday-school 
work  spread  throughout  the  North  India  Conference,  and  in 
a  very  few  years  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  mission- 
aries in  all  parts  of  India.  In  every  station  the  schools 
were  commenced  in  much  the  same  way,  but  in  the  course 
of  years  became  more  thoroughly  organized,  and  were  so 
used  as  to  become  not  only  a  means  of  doing  good  to  the 
boys  who  attended,  but  were  made  a  powerful  missionary 
agency  among  the  adults  without.  The  informal  manner  in 
which  many  of  these  schools  have  always  been  conducted,  has, 
as  might  have  been  expected,  exposed  them  to  no  little 
criticism;  but  the  m^n  on  the  spot,  who  understood  what 
they  were  doing,  and  who  perceived  clearly  the  far-reaching 
influence  of  this  work,  wisely  paid  little  attention  to  the 
criticism,  or  even  censure,  which  was  leveled  at  them  by  per- 
sons who,  owing  to  distance,  could  not  correctly  estimate 
the  value  of  such  a  work.  The  gospel  "sounded  forth"  from 
each  school  in  a  manner  which  had  not  been  anticipated,  and 
yet  which  proved  very  effective.  Whatever  else  the  boys 
failed  to  learn,  they  all  learned  to  sing  our  Christian  hymns, 
and  in  the  towns  and  villages  at  all  hours  their  voices  would 
be  heard  by  hundreds  and  thousands  who  otherwise  would 
nevfr  have  listened  to  a  gospel  sound.  It  has  been  said  of 
our  Methodist  people  all  over  the  world  that  they  have  never 
learned  their  theology,  but  that  it  has  been  "  sung  into 
them."  In  an  important  sense  this  remark  will  apply  to 


SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.  347 

hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  people  in  North  India.  They 
have  never  heard  a  word  of  gospel  truth  excepting  as  it  has 
reached  them  through  the  medium  of  the  simple  Christian 
hymns  which  they  have  heard  the  Sunday-school  boys  sing- 
ing. Older  people  sometimes  learn  these  hymns  from  their 
children,  being  attracted  by  the  native  airs  with  which  they 
have  been  familiar  from  their  childhood.  Then,  again,  these 
boys  are  taught  to  memorize  verses.  A  small  ticket  is  given 
them,  with  a  verse  of  Scripture  on  it,  and  each  boy  is  required 
to  memorize  this  before  the  following  Sabbath.  All  children 
in  India  are  exceedingly  fond  of  memorizing,  and  the  only 
idea  which  the  people  generally  have  of  learning,  consists  in 
the  one  accomplishment  of  memorizing  what  is  put  before 
them.  In  school  they  invariably  read  at  the  top  of  their 
voices,  as  used  to  be  the  custom  three-quarters  of  a  century 
ago  in  the  United  States.  A  boy  in  a  village  wishing  to 
memorize  his  verse  will  go  down  the  street  repeating  it  at  the 
top  of  his  voice,  perhaps  a  hundred  times  in  the  course  of  a 
few  minutes.  He  continues  the  process  as  he  sits  by  his 
mother's  door  in  the  evening,  or  as  he  watches  the  cows  and 
goats  at  pasture  in  the  fields.  In  this  way  thousands  upon 
thousands  are  hearing  precious  words  of  truth,  repeated,  it  is 
true,  in  the  most  careless  manner  possible,  but  yet  so  repeated 
that  the  words  will  fix  themselves  in  the  memory  of  the 
hearer,  and  where  they  can  not  but  in  time  produce  an  im- 
pression. 

Still  another  good  effect  of  this  work  is  that  the  people 
are  made  familiar  with  what  is  substantially  an  act  of  Chris- 
tian worship.  In  earlier  days  most  of  them  stood  in  terror 
of  anything  of  the  kind,  fancying,  in  their  superstitious  ig- 
norance, that  all  manner  of  evils  might  come  to  them  if  they 
ventured  to  come  in  contact  with  Christians  engaged  in  an 
act  of  religious  worship.  It  is  worth  more  than  the  reader 
in  America  can  appreciate  to  have  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
the  people  become  familiar  with  the  spectacle  of  a  congregation 
gathered  together,  joining  in  prayer,  singing  songs  of  praise 


348  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

to  God,  and  otherwise  going  through  the  routine  of  ordinary 
Christian  worship.  Some  good  people,  however,  have  objected 
to  this  work  upon  this  very  ground.  To  them  it  seems  too 
much  like  degrading  our  worship,  or  making  it  a  too  familiar 
exercise,  so  that  the  people  will  learn  to  look  upon  it  with 
indifference,  if  not  with  contempt.  Others,  again,  object  that 
boys  who  are  not  Christians  are  taught  to  repeat  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  which  they  regard  as  altogether  improper,  if  not 
morally  wrong.  The  average  Christian  of  modern  times  is 
more  of  a  Jew  than  people  generally  suspect.  A  great  deal 
of  ancie.nt  Judaism  has  filtered  down  through  the  ages,  and 
affects  even  intelligent  Christians  at  the  present  day  to  an 
extent  which  sometimes  hinders  their  usefulness,  and  keeps 
no  little  light  from  shining  into  their  own  minds.  The  word 
"  heathen,"  on  the  lips  of  the  average  Christian  in  England 
or  America,  to  say  nothing  of  India,  is  often  a  mere  syno- 
nym for  the  word  "  Gentile,"  as  used  by  the  ancient  Jews ; 
and  hence  good  people  are  sometimes  troubled  at  the  thought 
of  heathen  boys — that  is  to  say,  boys  who,  in  their  own 
homes,  worship  idols — joining  with  Christians  in  repeating 
the  Lord's  Prayer.  The  whole  procedure  seems  to  them  too 
much  like  taking  the  children's  bread  and  casting  it  to  dogs. 
I  need  hardly  say  that  this  faint  reflection  of  Jewish  preju- 
dice should  have  no  place  in  a  missionary's  heart.  We  place 
all  these  dear  little  folks,  boys  and  girls,  Hindus,  Mohamme- 
dans, and  Christians,  upon  exactly  the  same  basis.  We 
teach  them  that  God  is  their  Father  in  heaven,  and  do  not 
pause  to  qualify  the  statement  in  any  way  whatever.  We 
teach  them  to  look  up  to  him  and  say,  "  Our  Father," 
without  the  slightest  hesitation.  We  teach  them  to  sing 
songs  of  praise  to  him,  believing  that  he  looks  down  with 
pleasure  upon  every  such  gathering  of  little  folks,  without 
regard  to  their  name,  language,  race,  or  religious  profession. 
We  have  not  the  slightest  scruple  in  teaching  every  human 
being  to  begin  at  once  to  look  heavenward,  and  say,  "Our 
Father  who  art  in  heaven."  We  believe  that  thousands  of 


SUNDA  Y-SCHOOLS.  349 

these  children  have  learned  to  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer  with 
sincerity,  and  to  sing  our  hymns,  not  only  with  the  under- 
standing, but  at  times  with  the  spirit  also. 

From  the  very  first  our  chief  hindrance  in  this  Sunday- 
school  work  was  that  of  finding  suitable  officers  and  teachers 
for  the  schools.  In  the  beginning  we  had  but  few  Hindu- 
stani Christians  who  were  fitted  for  such  work,  while  our 
English  membership  was  also  small,  and  not  a  few  of  the  best 
of  our  people  were  unable  to  sing  or  even  speak  in  Hindu- 
stani. In  some  cases  a  zealous  Scotchman  would  be  seen, 
with  an  interpreter  at  his  side,  managing  the  school  as  best 
he  could ;  while  in  another  school  an  Englishman  would  per- 
haps be  seen  in  charge,  talking  to  the  boys  in  broken  sen- 
tences, such  as  would  have  provoked  great  mirth  had  the 
school  been  composed  of  American  boys  listening  to  a  for- 
eigner, but  which  were  listened  to  with  all  gravity  by  the 
little  Orientals,  who  seldom  laugh  or  even  smile  in  the  face 
of  any  one  who  blunders,  no  matter  how  seriously,  in  the  use 
of  their  language.  The  work  continued  to  spread  rapidly, 
and  was  taken  up  in  all  the  stations  of  our  mission  in  Oudh 
and  Rohilkhand.  In  order  to  meet  the  sudden  and  unex- 
pected demand  for  this  kind  of  work,  some  of  the  mission- 
aries began  to  hold  schools  in  two  or  three  different  places  in 
the  course  of  the  same  Sunday.  As  a  general  rule,  in  those 
days,  not  more  than  two  or  three  officers  and  teachers  were 
assigned  to  each  school.  These  would  go  out,  perhaps  at  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  hold  a  school  in  the  usual  form; 
then  proceed  to  another  point,  and  hold  a  second  school  at  eight 
o'clock.  The  same  workers  would  sometimes  go  out  again 
in  the  evening,  and  hold  a  school  at  five  or  six  o'clock  in  a 
third  place.  In  this  way  a  vast  amount  of  work  could  be 
done  by  a  comparatively  small  force  of  workers ;  but  even  by 
duplicating  and  triplicating  the  efforts  of  the  teachers  in  this 
way,  the  demand  for  such  schools  could  not  be  fully  met; 
and  after  a  time  some  of  the  missionaries  began  to  hold 
Sunday-schools  on  week-days.  This  raised  a  somewhat  amus- 


350  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

ing,  and  yet  very  practical,  question  as  to  whether  such 
schools  were  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  table  of  Sunday-school 
statistics,  or  whether  they  should  be  called  Sunday-schools  at 
all.  They  were  conducted  in  precisely  the^  same  way  as  the 
regular  schools  held  on  the  Lord's-day,  and,  so  far  as  any 
one  could  judge,  were  quite  as  useful  in  every  respect,  unless 
it  was  in  the  single  fact  that  they  did  not  mark  the  Lord's- 
day  as  in  any  sense  different  from  the  other  days  of  the  week. 
As  time  has  passed,  however,  workers  have  increased  and 
multiplied  with  the  increase  of  our  native  Christians,  both  in 
numbers  and  intelligence,  so  that  it  is  probable  that  we  shall 
soon  have  a  sufficient  supply  of  Sunday-school  teachers. 

Another  difficulty  which  was  experienced  almost  at  the 
outset  was  that  of  finding  suitable  buildings  in  which  to  hold 
the  schools.  The  chapels,  school-houses,  and  rented  rooms 
which  were  used  at  first  soon  proved  utterly  insufficient  for 
the  thousands  of  boys  who  were  eager  to  meet  with  us  in 
Sunday-schools.  The  workers  were  not  long  in  deciding  how 
to  meet  this  difficulty.  In  the  absence  of  buildings,  they  as- 
sembled their  boys  under  trees,  and  sometimes,  in  the  early 
morning  or  late  evening,  under  the  open  sky.  The  superin- 
tendent would  take  his  cane  and  draw  straight  lines,  about 
four  feet  apart,  on  the  hard-baked  earth,  arranged  in  the  same 
order  as  the  seats  in  a  church,  with  an  aisle  three  or  four  feet 
wide  separating  the  two  rows  of  lines.  The  boys  would 
crowd  in,  and  seat  themselves  on  the  ground  in  their  usual 
style,  with  their  toes  touching  the  line,  so  that  they  sat  in 
perfect  order.  When  all  were  seated,  the  superintendent 
would  call  on  them  to  rise  and  sing  a  hymn,  after  which  all 
joined  in  repeating  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Then  they  would 
sing  again  a  number  of  hymns,  after  which,  if  enough  teachers 
were  present,  they  would  resume  their  seats,  and  repeat  the 
verse  or  verses  which  they  had  learned  during  the  week. 
If  sufficiently  advanced,  they  would  also  receive  a  brief 
exposition  of  the  lesson  of  the  day,  after  which  there  would 
be  some  more  singing  followed  perhaps  by  a  general  cate- 


SUNDA  Y-SCHOOLS.  351 

chizing  of  the  school,  and  then  an  address  from  the  superin- 
tendent. 

Some  two  or  three  years  ago  this  kind  of  open-air  Sun- 
day-school work  was  pushed  with  great  energy  in  some  sec- 
tions, to  such  an  extent  that  these  schools  were  at  times  held 
in  the  open  squares  of  the  cities  and  towns,  and  prosecuted 
with  equal  zeal  on  Sundays  and  week-days.  Thousands  of 
men  and  boys,  and  in  some  cases  even  women  and  girls, 
were  enrolled,  and  thus  publicly  taught.  This  raised  anew 
the  old  questions:  What  is  a  Sunday-school?  How  many  oi 
these  schools  can  legitimately  be  included  in  the  Sunday- 
school  statistics?  The  decision  reached  was,  that  such 
schools,  held  on  ordinary  days,  were  to  be  termed  Bible-, 
schools,  and  reported  separately.  It  was  thought  best  to 
keep  the  Sunday-school,  as  far  as  possible,  so  distinct  from 
everything  else  resembling  it,  that  its  character,  not  only  as 
a  school  but  a  worshiping  assembly,  might  not  be  lost.  I 
had  a  few  opportunities  of  examining  this  kind  of  work,  and 
was  surprised  to  find  that  boys  of  the  most  thoughtless  and 
wild  description,  thus  called  together  in  the  public  street, 
could  really  learn  a  great  deal  ot  precious  truth  in  the  course 
of  a  half-hour,  provided  the  process  was  repeated  two  or 
three  times  a  week.  I  was  surprised,  and  both  amused  and 
saddened,  on  one  occasion,  when,  on  going  through  a  public 
jail,  I  was  addressed  by  five  boys  who  had  been  imprisoned 
for  some  petty  offense,  and  who  assured  me  that  they  be- 
longed to  our  Sunday-schools.  They  proved  their  assertion 
by  repeating  hymns  and  portions  of  the  Catechism,  and 
seemed  to  have  profited,  intellectually  at  least,  by  the  very 
meager  opportunities  which  they  had  enjoyed.  I  saw  noth- 
ing, discouraging  in  the  fact  that  such  boys  had  found  a  lodg- 
ment in  the  public  jail.  They  were  bright  boys  in  their  way, 
and  the  same  acuteness  which  had  drawn  them  to  the  open 
Sunday-school  in  the  street,  had  also  unfortunately  lodged 
them  in  their  prison  home.  We  have  to  take  both  boys  and 
men  as  they  come,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  we  ought  to  be 


352  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

thankful  that  the  poor  little  fellows  had  learned  to  sing  a 
few  hymns  before  being  shut  up  within  the  dark  walls  of 
the  public  prison. 

What  has  been  the  result  of  this  work  ?  As  expressed  in 
statistics  it  has  far  exceeded  our  anticipations.  We  have 
1,374  Sunday-schools  in  operation  in  India,  with  more  than 
55,000  pupils.  We  have  been  led  to  give  more  attention  to 
this  department  of  our  work  than  any  other  mission  in  In- 
dia, and  consequently  stand  at  the  head  of  all  the  missionary 
organizations  in  the  empire  in  our  Sunday-school  work.  God 
has  wonderfully  led  us  in  this  department  of  our  work,  and 
we  have  no  thought  of  slackening  our  efforts,  but  hope  that, 
as  the  years  go  by,  we  shall  not  only  increase  the  great  army 
of  Sunday-school  workers  and  pupils  which  he  has  given  us^ 
but  that  we  shall  reap  rich  harvests  when  the  precious  seed 
which  has  been  sown  through  this  agency  shall  have  had 
time  to  spring  up  and  bring  forth  fruit. 


MOHAMMEDAN  YOUNG  WOMEN. 


Chapter  XXVI. 
THE  WOMEN  OF  INDIA.* 

A  FOREIGN  visitor  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition  asked 
why  the  peasantry  did  not  appear  among  the  multitudes 
thronging  the  gates.  He  had  not  before  been  in  a  country 
where  there  was  no  visible  class  distinction.  That  which  is 
so  conspicuously  absent  in  America  is  the  most  striking 
characteristic  of  an  Indian  crowd.  As  no  country  in  the 
world  has  so  many  caste  distinctions,  so  no  one  presents  such 
strongly  marked  differences  in  the  appearance  and  dress  of 
the  people  who  represent  its  various  races,  religions,  and  oc- 
cupations. The  women  of  India,  having  less  intercourse 
with  each  other  than  the  men,  have  for  ages  maintained 
these  differences  with  little  or  no  modification.  If  it  would 
be  possible  to  bring  them  all  together  in  one  great  assembly, 
it  would  still  be  as  easy  to  classify  them  as  when  we  meet 
them  in  their  own  cities  or  zenanas.  In  features  they  are  much 
like  Europeans  ;  but  there  are  as  many  types  as  among  the 
western  Aryans,  and  these  differ  from  one  another  as  plainly 
as  the  German  differs  from  the  Irishman,  or  the  Swede  from 
the  Italian.  There  is  the  wide  forehead,  arched  eyebrows, 
and  olive  skin  of  the  Mogul,  the  oval  face  and  well-set 
head  of  the  Bengali,  the  small  regular  features  of  the 
Marathi,  the  efficient,  business-like  expression  of  the  Parsee, 

*This  and  the  two  following  chapters  have  been  kindly  written  for 
this  book  by  Miss  Isabella  Thoburn,  Principal  of  the  Woman's  Christian 
College  of  Lucknow.  A  few  slight  changes  have  been  introduced,  but 
none  of  importance.  Miss  Thoburn's  long  residence  in  India,  and  in- 
timate association  with  Indian  women  of  all  classes,  fit  her  in  au 
eminent  degree  for  the  task  which  is  here  fulfilled. 

365 


356 


INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 


the  shrinking  reserve  of  the    Hindustani,  the  low-browed 
Madrasi,  and  so  on  down  the  list. 

As  in  countenance,  so  in  costumes;  and  in  a  hundred 
varying  peculiarities  do  the  women  of  India  maintain,  gen- 
eration after  generation,  lines  of  distinction  which  never  are 
effaced.  The  Brahmani  of  Hindustan,  like  the  Bengali  of 


MISS  ISABELLA  THOBURN. 


all  castes,  wears  a  "sari."  This  is  one  garment,  about  five 
yards  long  and  a  yard  and  a  quarter  wide,  so  arranged  as  to 
cover  the  whole  person  gracefully,  and,  to  one  initiated,  re- 
quiring neither  pin  nor  button.  The  right  arm  is  left  free 
and  the  right  shoulder  partially  exposed.  This  costume  is 
very  pretty.  It  is  generally  white,  but  is  sometimes  colored, 
and  often  with  a  narrow  woven  border  of  blue,  red,  or  yel- 
low. The  Madras  sari  is  differently  arranged,  and  does  not 


THE  WOMEN.  357 

cover  the  head.  The  Marathi  puts  hers  on  in  still  another 
way ;  but  the  Gujarat!  has  the  prettiest  style  of  all,  and  her 
garment  is  often  rich  in  colors  and  embroidery.  The  lower 
Hindustani  castes  wear  skirts  heavily  trimmed  with  colored 
silk  and  tinsel  braid,  small  jackets  with  short  sleeves,  and  a 
"  chadar,"  a  garment  which  is  two  and  a  half  yards  long,  and 
one  and  a  quarter  wide.  One  end  covers  the  head,  and  the 
other  is  brought  across  in  front,  and  thrown  over  the  left 
shoulder.  This  chadar  may  be  of  any  material — plain  or  em- 
broidered, white  or  colored.  It  is  often  edged  with  gold  or 
silver  braid.  The  working-women  are  known  by  their  woven 
skirts  of  dark  gingham,  either  checked  or  striped,  with  a 
deeper  stripe  of  the  prevailing  color  at  the  bottom.  The  web 
is  made  the  width  and  length  of  one  skirt.  These  women 
often  wear  blue  or  red  chadars,  and  a  group  of  them  at  work 
among  the  wheat-fields  heightens  the  beauty  of  an  always 
bright  landscape.  The  women  of  the  mountains  wear  a 
jacket,  with  a  pretty  vest,  in  which  another  material  of  some 
bright  color  has  been  set,  and  the  chadar  falls  back  from 
the  head  so  as  not  to  hide  this  piece  of  finery.  The  skirts  of 
Nepali  women  contain  yards  and  yards  of  cloth,  so  full  that 
they  stand  out  as  though  hooped. 

Very  different  from  all  of  these  are  the  Mohammedan 
costumes,  in  which  trousers  invariably  take  the  place  of 
skirts.  These  are  sometimes  close-fitting — a  style  which,  it 
is  unnecessary  to  say,  is  not  at  all  pretty.  The  most  com- 
monly worn  fits  closely  at  the  hips,  and  is  gored  to  a  great 
width  at  the  bottom,  the  number  of  gores  and  the  width  de- 
pending entirely  upon  the  ability  of  the  wearer.  A  hand- 
some pair  would  sweep  the  floor  a  yard  behind ;  but  they  are 
caught  up  in  folds  in  front,  and  tucked  in  at  the  waist,  hang- 
ing like  large  ruffles,  and  leaving  anything  but  a  pretty 
effect  at  the  back.  The  jacket  is  a  little  vest-like  thing,  all 
embroidery  and  trimming,  which  leaves  bare  the  arm  and  a 
hand-breadth  of  the  body  between  its  hem  and  the  band  of 
the  trousers.  The  chadar  is  generally  net,  or  some  very  thin 


358  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

material  which  is  often  allowed  to  fall  back  on  the  shoulder. 
It  is  always  heavily  trimmed.  The  Mohammedans  wear 
much  more  color  than  the  Hindus;  the  order  being  reversed 
with  them,  the  well-to-do  classes  wearing  color,  and  the 
working-women  white. 

All  these  women,  of  all  classes,  are  loaded  with  jewelry; 
indeed,  it  largely  constitutes  the  dress  in  their  eyes.  There 
are  pendants  falling  on  the  forehead;  as  many  ear-rings  as 
can  find  place  from  tip  to  tip  of  the  ear;  nose-rings  so  large 
that  they  can  sometimes  be  tied  back  to  the  ear-rings,  or  so 
small  that  they  are  mere  buttons  on  the  nostril — a  Mo- 
hammedan preference;  necklaces  in  close  bauds  around  the 
throat,  and  suspended  in  larger  and  larger  circles  to  the 
waist;  armlets  above  the  elbows,  and  bracelets  by  the  dozen 
below ;  rings  on  the  fingers,  rings  on  the  toes,  anklets,  and 
instep  ornaments,  and  chains  at  the  waist.  Some  of  the  toe- 
rings  have  little  bells  attached,  and  the  bearer  "makes  music 
wherever  she  goes,"  or  at  least  makes  a  jingle.  With  such 
loads  to  carry,  it  is  a  happy  thing  that  these  women  have 
little  walking  or  working  to  do;  and  yet  the  poor  laborers, 
who  can  not  afford  the  precious  rnetals,  array  themselves  in 
heavy  pewter  or  earthenware  ornaments.  Shellac  is  made 
into  very  pretty  bracelets  of  all  colors  and  designs,  and  is 
much  worn,  with  either  gold  or  silver  bands  between.  Gold 
is  never  worn  on  the  feet  of  even  the  most  wealthy. 

It  is  not  only  that  Indian  women  like  ornaments '  and 
jewels,  but  because  they  are  a  sort  of  deposit  of  money,  that 
they  are  worn.  If  a  woman  has  money  to  lay  by,  she  has  it 
made  up  into  bangles,  and  puts  them  on  her  arms,  or  per- 
haps locks  them  in  a  box.  When  a  time  of  need  comes, 
they  are  either  pawned  or  sold.  "What  will  you  do  now?" 
was  asked  a  Christian  widow  who  had  lost  her  employment 
for  conscience'  sake.  "  Eat  these,"  she  replied,  holding  out 
her  arms  to  show  a  pair  of  heavy  silver  bracelets.  She  ate 
them,  and  when  a  new  service  gave  her  a  surplus  again,  she 
had  bracelets  made  for  another  rainy  day. 


THE  WOMEN.  359 

A  bride's  dowry  consists  largely  of  jewels,  which  it  is 
considered  dishonorable  for  her  husband  to  sell.  A  Moham- 
medan wife  may  sue  her  husband  if  he  disposes  of  her  jewels 
without  her  consent. 

Only  well-to-do  people  are  confined  to  the  zenana,*  and 
only  those  of  some  nationalities.  In  South  India,  women 
may  go  out  much  more  freely  than  in  the  North.  The 
Marathi  women  have  much  freedom,  and  the  Parsees  walk 
where  they  will,  and  even  drive  out  with  their  husbands. 
The  parda  f  system  is  more  generally  observed  where  there 
is  most  Mohammedanism,  and  most  strictly  in  cities  that 
were  Mohammedan  capitals.  Islam  is  to  blame  for  the 
system.  Oriental  women  always  lived  more  or  less  in  the 
background,  but  Mohammed  shut  them  within  walls  and 
turned  the  key.  When  his  religion  was  brought  to  India 
this  custom  came  with  it.  The  invading  kings  and  their 
courtiers  forcibly  added  Hindu  women  to  their  harems,  and, 
to  protect  their  wives  and  daughters  from  such  outrages,  the 
Hindus  kept  them  indoors.  Gradually  the  Mohammedan 
zenana  system  came  to  prevail  among  them  as  among  their 
conquerors,  and  in  proportion  to  their  natural  reserve  and 
timidity,  it  became  much  more  strictly  observed.  In  course 
of  time  seclusion  became  the  Indian  standard  of  respectabil- 
ity. If  a  man  could  afford  to  keep  his  wife  and  daughters 
in  idleness,  they  were  shut  up  in  a  zenana — not  unwillingly ; 
for  they,  too,  aspired  to  the  higher  social  position.  This  se- 
clusion is  rigidly  enforced  in  the  cities;  but  in  villages  and 
remote  towns  the  women  only  keep  in  the  background,  and 

*  The  word  zenana  is  of  Persian  origin,  and  usually  means  the 
part  of  a  house  set  apart  for  the  exclusive  use  of  the  women.  Some- 
times, however,  the  term  is  used  to  designate  the  inmates  of  women's 
apartments,  and  in  missionary  circles  it  is  often  applied,  somewhat 
V)osely,  to  all  forms  of  work  among  the  higher  classes  of  women,  carried 
on  in  their  own  homes.  In  popular  language,  a  "  zenana  woman  "  is 
one  who  lives  in  Oriental  seclusion. 

t  The  parda,  mentioned  below,  means,  literally,  the  veil  or  screen, 
and  is  the  common  term  used  for  the  seclusion  of  women. 


360  INDTA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

draw  their  chadars  well  over  their  faces  when  men  are  near. 
They  would  never,  under  any  circumstances,  enter  into  con- 
versation with  a  man.  Among  Hindus  a  woman  is  more 
careful  to  veil  her  face  in  the  presence  of  her  husband  than 
of  even  remote  male  relatives;  but  a  Mohammedan  woman, 
except  for  a  short  time  after  marriage,  looks  her  husband  in 
the  face,  and  talks  to  him  freely.  When  she  displeases  him 
he  reminds  her  with  high  disdain  that  he  is  a  man;  and  if 
she  is  a  pious  Mussulmani,  she  will  at  once  be  meekly  silent; 
if  not,  there  will  be  an  argument,  in  which  she  will  have 
the  last  word  at  any  cost. 

The  Indian  house  of  the  better  class  is  cheerless  enough 
to  outward  appearance — a  four-walled  prison,  with  one  door 
and  no  windows — but  within  it  always  contains  an  open 
court,  into  which  the  sun  can  shine  by  day  and  the  stars 
look  down  at  night.  The  rooms  may  be  small  and  dark, 
but  they  open  on  verandas,  and  these  open  on  the  court, 
and  the  veranda  is  the  family  dwelling-place.  They  sleep  in 
the  little  rooms  in  the  coldest  weather,  and  in  the  court  in 
the  warmest,  or  up  on  the  flat  roof,  around  which  the  outer 
wall  extends  high  enough  to  form  a  screen.  There  are 
sometimes  small  windows  in  this  wall — if  larger  than 
pigeon-holes,  they  are  closely  latticed — and  through  these  the 
women  may  look  into  the  street  below.  Not  much  of  a 
view;  for  the  dwelling-houses  of  respectable  people  are  not 
on  the  bazaar,  but  in  narrow  lanes,  where  the  outstretched 
hands  may  almost  touch  opposite  houses.  The  court  gener- 
ally contains  a  well,  and  sometimes  a  tree,  and  in  large  es- 
tablishments of  the  rich  it  expands  into  a  small  garden. 
Many  a  poor  little  place  is  made  bright  by  a  bed  of  mari- 
golds, or  sacred  by  a  carefully  kept  tulsi  plant  (an  object  of 
worship) ;  but  broken  or  unused  househould  utensils  and 
furniture,  and  a  sadly  kept  drain,  often  detract  from  this 
otherwise  pleasant  part  of  the  house.  In  large  zenanas  there 
is  often  an  inner  court  for  the  women  and  the  household 
work;  but  the  average  Indian  house  contains  a  little  ante- 


THE  WOMEN.  361 

room,  sometimes  used  for  a  stable,  sometimes  for  a  pascage 
only,  with  a  small  room  to  the  right  or  left  of  this  where  the 
men  sit  and  talk  and  receive  their  friends.  Within,  on  one 
side  of  the  court,  is  the  kitchen  and  store-room,  and  on  the 
other  two  sides  the  sitting  and  bed-rooms.  The  furniture  of 
the  same  average  house  consists  of  beds — which  are  light  cots 
that  can  be  be  lifted  in  and  out  at  pleasure,  and  the  bed- 
ding of  which  is  generally  rolled  up  by  day — the  boxes  which 
contain  the  family  clothing,  a  pan-box,  a  few  pictures  of 
wonderful  many-armed  and  many-headed  gods  and  goddesses, 
a  low  desk,  if  the  master  of  the  house  has  literary  tastes,  and 
a  few  mats,  and  perhaps  cushions.  In  Mohammedan  houses 
there  is  a  wooden  platform  about  a  foot  high,  on  which  a 
cotton  mat  is  spread,  and  here  the  women  sit,  or  recline, 
much  of  their  time.  In  fine  houses  a  mat  covers  the  floor,  a 
white  cloth  is  spread  on  this,  and  bolsters  and  cushions  placed 
here  and  there  to  support  head,  back,  or  elbow,  as  the  sitter 
may  wish. 

The  kitchen  of  a  Hindu  house  is  its  most  attractive  part. 
It  is  small,  but  absolutely  clean.  The  stove  is  of  the 
rudest — simply  a  little  fireplace  of  clay  or  brick,  built  against 
the  wall,  and  without  a  chimney.  The  fireplace  and  the  wall 
behind  and  the  floor  in  front,  after  each  meal,  are  brushed 
over  with  a  clay  wash,  which  hardens  and  dries,  and  leaves  a 
spotless  surface.  The  brass  plates,  cups,  spoons,  and  kettles, 
scoured  until  they  shine  like  mirrors,  are  then  leaned  against 
the  wall,  to  await  their  next  service.  The  Mohammedans  do 
not  use  brass,  but  copper,  covered  with  a  surface  of  tin ;  and 
neither  vessels  nor  kitchen  are  kept  remarkably  clean,  but 
often  the  reverse. 

But  there  is  not  a  plate  and  cup  for  each  member  of  the 
family.  The  Indian  home  has  no  family  table  or  family  meal. 
The  food  is  prepared,  and  a  portion  set  before  the  master  of 
the  house,  if  he  fe  ready  to  eat,  and,  if  they  are  present,  the 
sons  or  other  male  relatives  may  eat  with  him ;  then  the 
women — all  together,  if  convenient,  but  otherwise  as  it  suits 


362  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

them,  sitting  near  the  hearth,  or  taking  the  plate  to  the  plat- 
form, or  the  cot,  which  is  a  seat  by  day  and  a  bed  by  night. 
If  guests  are  invited,  a  table-cloth,  or  crumb-cloth — for  there 
is  no  table — is  spread  on  the  floor  and  the  food  placed  upon 
it,  while  the  guests  sit  around,  but  not  the  family.  Like 
Abraham,  the  prince  of  Orientals,  the  host  serves  his  guests, 
standing  meanwhile,  or  the  hostess,  if  they  be  women.  The 
meal  consists  generally  of  two  dishes,  with  sometimes  an  ad- 
ditional relish  of  catsup  or  some  hot  sauce.  The  fast  is 
broken  in  the  morning  with  fruit  or  milk,  or  something  kept 
over  from  the  day  before.  The  breakfast  is  taken  at  early 
noon,  and  the  dinner  in  the  evening.  If  a  lunch  is  taken,  it 
consists  of  a  little  sweetmeat;  but  even  the  well-to-do  are 
temperate  people,  and  not  given  to  much  eating;  the  poor 
can  not  afford  it.  Multitudes  have  only  one  cooked  meal  a 
day,  and  make  the  other  of  a  handful  of  parched  grain. 

A  good  Hindu  wife  cooks  her  husband's  food  with  her 
own  hands,  although  she  may  have  servants  in  the  house. 
She  also  prepares  the  food  of  an  honored  guest.  Aside  from 
such  labors,  Hindu  women  have  little  to  do.  If  they  wear 
the  sari,  it  requires  no  sewing ;  and  the  elaborate  trimming 
of  the  skirts  and  jackets  of  other  castes  is  generally  done  by 
a  tailor.  The  same  is  true  of  the  trousers  of  a  Mohammedan 
lady ;  very  few  make  their  own,  and  even  the  village  women 
who  work  in  the  fields  have  their  plain  sewing  done  by  a 
tailor.  The  Mohammedan  woman  who  can  afford  to  keep  a 
servant  does  not  cook  for  any  one,  and,  except  putting  on  and 
off  her  jewels,  and  preparing  betel-nut  and  pan,  she  is  abso- 
lutely idle.  Sometimes  she  does  a  little  embroidery,  and 
keeps  a  piece  to  show  her  visitors.  The  pan-box  contains 
an  upper  tray,  on  which  the  fresh  leaves  are  placed.  When 
this  is  removed,  there  is  seen  under  it  a  number  of  little  cups, 
containing  the  different  articles  used  in  the  preparation — 
betel-nut,  cardamom-seeds,  cocoa-nut,  cloves,  catechu,  and 
lime.  One  or  two  leaves  are  laid  on  the  palm,  the  lime  and 
catechu  spread  on,  the  betel-nut  cut  in  small  pieces  by  a  knife 


THE  WOMEN.  363 

made  for  the  purpose,  and  cardamom  and  cocoa-nut  added, 
and  then  the  leaf  is  neatly  folded  over  and  pinned  with  a 
clove.  The  whole  must  be  taken  into  the  mouth  at  once, 
and  what  with  the  distended  cheek  and  the  red  catechu  on 
the  lips  and  teeth,  it  in  no  way  adds  to  the  beauty  of  the  face. 
It  is  slightly  stimulating,  perhaps  equal  to  a  mild  cup  of  tea. 
It  is  always  offered  to  a  guest.  It  is  taken  after  each  meal. 
It  is  prepared  for  the  men  of  the  family  when  they  come  in 
or  go  out,  taken  as  refreshment  at  any  time  of  the  day,  and 
in  process  of  time  it  becomes  such  a  habit  that  elderly  peo- 
ple— men  and  women — are  seldom  seen  without  a  pan  in 
their  mouths.  This  is  especially  true  of  Mohammedan 
women,  whose  beautiful  teeth  in  girlhood  become  quite 
spoiled  by  its  use. 

As  the  women  neither  sew  nor  read,  their  daily  re- 
ligious duties  are,  to  many,  their  only  occupation.  Prepar- 
ing the  flowers  and  sweetmeats,  and  performing  the  daily 
worship,  is  not  only  a  pious  act,  but  it  is  a  relief  from  the 
monotonous  idleness  of  the  day.  This  is  done  in  a  little 
room  set  apart  for  the  purpose.  Another  religious  act  is  a 
relief  from  the  four-walled  seclusion  in  which  they  live.  On 
all  sacred  days  and  full  moons,  and  whenever  there  is  special 
reason  for  the  act,  the  elderly  women  of  the  family  are  per- 
mitted to  go  to  the  river  to  bathe.  They  put  on  a  large 
outer  chadar,  much  like  a  sheet,  and  draw  it  over  the  face  so 
closely  as  almost  to  hide  it,  and  take  with  them  an  offering 
according  to  their  ability;  it  may  be  a  handful  of  rice,  or 
fruit,  or  sweetmeats ;  if  it  is  money,  it  is  generally  copper. 
They  go  into  the  water  with  one  garment  on,  and  on  coming 
out  a  dry  chadar  is  put  round  the  shoulders,  while  the  wet 
one  is  dropped  on  the  ground,  and  afterward  wrung  out  and 
carried  home.  The  bath  and  change  of  garments  is  made 
with  the  utmost  modesty  and  care.  After  coming  up  from 
the  river,  an  offering  is  made  to  the  priest,  who  sits  con- 
veniently near;  then  some  of  the  sacred  water  is  taken 
home,  for  household  use,  in  the  little  brass  cup  she  has 


364  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

brought  for  the  purpose;  and  perhaps,  also,  some  flowers  from 
before  the  god  are  taken  in  exchange  for  those  she  has  offered. 

Mohammedan  women,  if  they  are  pious,  pray  five  times  a 
day,  standing  or  bowing  on  their  praying-mat,  with  their 
faces  toward  Mecca.  They  also  fast  rigidly  during  the 
Ramzau,  and  weep  themselves  blind  during  the  Moharram, 
special  mourning  services  being  held  in  the  houses ;  but  they 
seldom  go  to  the  mosques. 

The  religion  of  Hindu  women  is  obedience  to  priests  and 
husbands,  and  superstitious  reverence  for  all  the  rites,  tra- 
ditions, and  customs  of  their  faith.  This  means  more  than 
any  one  can  comprehend  who  has  grown  up  free  in  thought 
and  action.  It  enters  into  all  the  affairs  of  life,  from  birth 
to  death.  In  eating  and  drinking,  in  sickness  and  health,  in 
marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  in  making  and  receiving 
visits,  the  gods,  the  stars,  and  all  the  elements  are  consulted, 
either  through  the  priests  or  through  signs  that  have  come 
to  mean  good  or  evil,  with  a  fear  that  nothing  in  reason  can 
overcome.  The  cutting  of  a  boy's  hair  is  a  religious  observ- 
ance, and  sometimes  a  pilgrimage  is  undertaken  in  order  to 
perform  it  in  a  sacred  place.  Small-pox  is  a  goddess  who 
will  be  offended  if  she  is  treated  as  an  unwelcome  guest,  and 
will  send  greater  calamities  upon  those  who  are  unwilling  to 
receive  her;  therefore  vaccination  is  resisted.  All  sickness 
comes  from  the  displeasure  of  angry  gods,  or  from  the  influ- 
ence of  evil  spirits,  and  these  must  be  propitiated  by  charms 
and  incantations,  by  feeding  Brahmans,  going  on  pilgrimages, 
and  other  difficult  and  expensive  acts.  Hinduism  is  not  a 
religion  of  love,  but  of  fear ;  and  the  anger  of  the  gods,  which 
descends  in  curses  upon  those  who  offend  them,  is  dreaded 
at  every  step.  This  anger  is  not  manifested  when  their  devo- 
tees commit  sin  as  we  understand  it — not  for  acts  of  false- 
hood, impuiity,  or  dishonesty;  on  the  contrary,  they  could 
invoke  the  aid  of  the  gods  in  these  things — but  for  omitting 
some  rite,  neglecting  some  gift  to  priest  or  temple,  or  break- 
ing a  custom  that  time  has  made  sacred.  Next  to  the  gods 


THE  WOMEN.  365 

they  fear  evil  spirits.  To  keep  these  off,  amulets  are  worn 
on  neck  and  arms,  and  even  tied  to  the  hair,  if  the  head 
aches.  They  may  consist  of  relics  brought  from  sacred 
places,  the  name  of  a  god  carved  on  camel ian  or  bloodstone, 
or  a  line  of  the  Koran  inclosed  in  a  little  silver  box.  Super- 
stition is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  women ;  but  it  is  more 
marked  among  them,  and  especially  in  the  villages  its  name 
is  legion.  Every  poor,  nervous,  hysterical  creature  is  thought 
to  be  possessed,  and  is  often  beaten,  or  burned  with  hot  irons, 
to  drive  the  demons  away. 

There  are  no  gentler,  more  kind-hearted,  and  unselfish 
women  in  the  world  than  the  women  of  India.  The  Hindu 
wife  is  not  only  devoted  to  her  husband  as  a  religious  duty, 
but  to  him  and  her  children,  and  all  her  friends,  from  the 
love  of  her  heart.  She  can  do  nothing  to  show  it  but  pre- 
pare their  food  when  they  are  well,  and  wail  over  them  when 
they  sicken  or  die;  and  in  her  blind  affection  she  is  often  the 
worst  enemy  of  those  dearest  to  her.  She  must  have  "them 
within  sight  and  touch,  although  health,  education,  or  pro- 
motion require  their  absence ;  they  receive  her  sympathetic 
approval  when  they  are  wrong,  if  the  wrong  should  bring 
them  into  any  trouble,  and  she  has  fierce  wrath  for  all  who 
think  them  guilty.  She  does  not  dream  that  she  has  anything 
to  do  in  forming  the  character  of  her  children.  If  she 
is  angry  enough  to  lose  self-control,  she  punishes  for  the 
merest  trifle ;  otherwise  no  notice  is  taken  of  the  gravest  mis- 
demeanors, and  falsehood  and  bad  language  are  thought  evi- 
dence of  precocity,  and  praised  accordingly.  This  is  the 
untaught  Hindu ;  but  the  educated  Christian  mother  of  India 
has  the  virtues  of  the  Christian  woman  of  other  countries. 

There  are  few  American  newspapers  that  have  not  pub- 
lished, in  an  item  or  editorial  article  during  the  past  few 
years,  a  statement  to  the  effect  that  there  are  21,000,000 
widows  in  India;  of  these,  670,000  are  under  nineteen  years 
of  age!  Many  of  them  are  little  children.  An  infant  may 
be  married,  or  even  betrothed,  and,  if  left  a  widow,  can  not 


366  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

remarry.  It  is  parental  duty  to  get  a  daughter  married,  and 
that  when  she  is  a  child;  and  so  there  are  no  unmarried 
women  of  a  suitable  age  for  a  mature  widower,  and  he  must 
marry  a  child,  even  though  he  be  an  old  man.  A  reform 
measure  proposed  by  the  last  Indian  National  Congress  was, 
that  a  man  of  sixty  be  forbidden  to  marry  a  girl  under 
twelve ! 

Suttee  was  abolished  by  law  during  Lord  Bentinck's  ad- 
ministration, in  1829.  Gradually  the  native  States,  led  by 
their  English-educated  chief  men,  and  acting  under  strong 
pressure  from  the  English  Government,  followed  the  example 
set  in  British  territory,  until  the  last  prohibitory  law  was 
made  in  Nepal  a  few  years  ago. 

It  was  honorable  to  die  with  her  husband,  and  the  widow 
thns  won  glory  here  and  heaven  hereafter;  but  to  live  was 
to  bear  continual  reproach.  The  sacred  books  and  laws  of 
the  Hindus  never  commanded  suttee ;  but  they  recommended 
perpetual  widowhood  and  a  life  of  privation  as  a  means  of 
attaining  a  better  state  hereafter,  and  release  from  the  penalty 
of  being  born  again  as  a  woman.  Except  with  little  girls, 
this  hard  life  is  often  accepted  as  a  necessity  of  the  widow's 
lot;  and  in  many  instances  she  subjects  herself  to  more  severe 
penances  than  her  friends  require,  being  guided  by  her  priests 
and  her  own  fears.  The  belief  is  that  widowhood  is  a  pun- 
ishment for  some  sin,  either  in  this  or  a  previous  birth;  and 
the  woman  who  has  offended  her  gods  to  the  extent  of  de- 
serving such  punishment,  is  deemed  as  unworthy  as  one  whose 
known  sin  makes  her  an  outcast  from  polite  society  in  other 
countries. 

And  yet  there  were,  here  and  there,  liberal-minded  fam- 
ilies, even  in  the  past,  and  one  occasionally  meets  an  aged 
widow  who  was  saved  from  suttee  by  an  orthodox  Hindu 
father,  and  frequently,  also,  happy  widows  in  homes  where 
they  have  won  for  themselves  affection  and  influence.  They 
are,  in  such  cases,  what  the  maiden  aunt  or  grandmother  is 
in  Christian  families — to  be  consulted  and  considered  in  all 


THE  WOMEN.  367 

important  matters,  and  kindly  cared  for  by  those  for  whom 
they  care  in  turn.  It  is  a  cause  of  thankfulness  that  the 
people  of  India  are  not  all  as  bad  as  their  systems. 

In  1856  the  remarriage  of  widows  was  legalized  by  Lord 
Canning;  but  the  law  was  for  years  after  almost  a  dead  letter. 
The  feeling  against  it  was  almost  too  strong  for  a  merely 
permissive  law  to  overcome;  and  even  now  the  man  who 
marries  a  widow  risks  social  ostracism,  and  must  pay  a  large 
fee  to  the  Brahman  who  performs  the  ceremony.  A  few 
years  ago,  each  such  case  was  loudly  proclaimed,  widely  pub- 
lished ;  but  they  are  becoming,  by  slow  degrees,  more  fre- 
quent and  less  notable.  Like  child-marriage,  compulsory 
widowhood  will  pass  gradually  away. 

To  overcome  an  age-intrenched  Hindu  custom  is  like 
leveling  one  of  the  Himalayas — possible,  but  with  infinite 
pains  of  effort  and  suspense.  The  reformers  are  now  attack- 
ing child-marriage,  but  with  such  slow  success  that  they 
would  be  discouraged  if  they  had  not  the  reformer's  faith. 
The  last  Legislative  Council  passed  a  law  forbidding  mar- 
riage under  twelve  years — a  step  that  former  administrations 
feared  to  take,  believing  that  the  empire  was  not  ready  for 
such  extreme  measures!  They  were  right,  if  ready  means  pre- 
pared to  accept  them  without  protest  or  dissent.  Mass-meet- 
ings were  held  all  over  the  land  while  the  act  was  pending, 
much  talking  was  done,  and  many  fiery  appeals  sent  up  to 
Government ;  but  when  the  bill  became  a  law,  the  disturbance 
subsided  to  occasional  low  mutterings  from  the  most  conserv- 
ative. The  extent  of  sympathy  with  the  established  order  of 
things  may  be  imagined  when  even  the  late  Mrs.  Joshee,  ed- 
ucated and  studying  medicine  in  America,  was  unwilling  to 
admit  that  child-marriage  was  an  evil.  Her  own  marriage,  at 
nine,  had  been  to  a  relative,  her  teacher  and  best  friend; 
and  with  this  experience,  and  the  traditions  of  her  people, 
she  had  been  unconscious  of  the  sufferings  of  others.  She 
would  have  changed  her  opinion  if  she  had  lived  to  practice 
her  profession  in  India. 


368  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Mohammedan  marriage  customs  differ  from  those  of  the 
Hindus  in  almost  every  particular  except  the  expense  at- 
tending the  ceremony.  Widow-marriage  is  as  common  as 
among  English  people,  and  child-marriage  is  not  common; 
few  Mohammedan  girls  are  married  before  their  teens,  and 
many  when  they  are  quite  women.  But  what  they  gain  in 
these  regards  they  more  than  lose  in  other  abuses  of  the 
family  relation.  Among  Hindus  polygamy  is  very  seldom 
practiced;  it  is  the  exception  to  find  more  than  one  wife  in 
the  family.  Princes  sometimes  take  more,  and  low-caste 
people;  but  among  the  better  classes  it  is  not  approved  by 
practice  or  opinion.  But  Mohammedans  take  as  many  wives 
as  they  can  aiford.  The  Koran  allows  them  four,  and  those 
who  can  support  them  generally  enlarge  their  families  to  the 
limits  of  the  law.  Worse  than  this,  their  law  permits  un- 
limited divorce — which,  among  Hindus,  is  unknown — an 
abomination  to  the  mind  of  a  Hindu  woman.  That  some 
castes  in  the  hills  turn  their  wives  out  and  take  others,  does 
not  alter  the  general  fact.  But  the  Mohammedan  man  or 
woman  who  wishes  a  divorce  may  obtain  it  by  paying  for  it. 
A  devout  Mussulman  may  never  have  more  than  four  wives 
at  once,  but  he  may  be  married  twenty  times.  Dr.  Murdoch 
mentions  an  Arab  who  had  been  married  fifty  times.  It  is 
also  allowed  to  them  to  marry  for  a  period  of  time — a  year, 
or  six  months,  according  to  their  pleasure.  These  customs 
have  degraded  every  family  instinct,  and  home-life  and  char- 
acter have  suffered  immeasurably.  The  women  have  less 
refinement  and  gentleness;  their  happiness,  where  it  exists  at 
all,  is  less  secure;  and  the  dissensions  between  rival  wives  are 
more  fierce  than  between  mother-in-law  and  daughter-in-law. 
When  the  polygamous  husband  can  afford  the  house-room, 
he  sets  up  separate  establishments,  and  thus  avoids  the  strife 
of  tongues.  When  child-marriage  has  been  done  away,  in 
practice  as  well  as  in  law,  this  barbarous  abuse  will  still  wait 
to  be  abolished. 


Chapter   XXVII. 
EDUCATION  AMONG  WOMEN. 

FROM  the  beginning,  missionary  work  among  the  women 
of  India  was  of  necessity,  largely  educational.  Like 
the  children  that  they  are,  they  have  to  be  led  step  by  step, 
and  receive  line  upon  line.  They  have  never  presumed  to 
question  their  false  faiths;  for  they  have  been  taught  that 
they  must  not  question  anything — that  they  must  not  have 
opinions.  The  Corinthian  woman  was  told  that  she  must 
ask  her  husband  at  home,  if  she  wanted  instruction ;  but  the 
Indian  woman  can  not  ask,  and  must  not  want  to  know.  To 
wish  to  read  was  presumption,  and  an  attempt  to  learn  was 
punished  by  the  gods  with  widowhood.  The  better  class  of 
Mohammedans  generally  have  their  daughters  taught  to  read 
and  write,  and,  compared  with  Hindus,  they  are  "  strong- 
minded  women."  Among  the  latter,  perhaps  one  in  a  thou- 
sand has  been  taught  by  a  liberal  father,  like  Ramabai's,  or 
by  a  husband  who  gave  the  lessons  secretly  for  fear  of  the 
ridicule  of  the  younger  members  of  the  family  and  the  anger 
and  prohibition  of  the  elder.  One  reason  given  by  the  men 
for  keeping  the  women  in  ignorance  was,  that  there  was  noth- 
ing fit  for  them  to  read;  but  it  never  seemed  to  occur  to 
them  to  write  pure  books,  or  expurgate  their  classic  litera- 
ture for  themselves  or  their  families.  Without  books,  with- 
out intelligent  conversation,  blind  followers  of  blind  guides, 
the  women  became  mentally  unfit  to  receive  new  impressions 
or  to  be  reached  by  new  influences.  Indeed  it  was  difficult 
to  reach  them  at  all,  shut  in  by  zenana  walls,  by  the  com- 
mands of  their  lords,  and  by  their  own  fears  and  supersti- 
tions. This  fear  was  the  same  among  all  classes.  Mrs.  Sale 

24  369 


370  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

says  that  when  she  tried  to  visit  the  women,  in  1850,  she 
found  admittance  to  the  zenanas  impossible.  She  then  "  went 
to  the  villages  among  the  poor  cultivators  of  the  land,  but 
found  the  women  in  their  lowly  huts  as  fearful  of  allowing 
their  faces  to  be  seen  by  strangers  as  the  dwellers  in  larger 
houses.  They  begged  her  not  to  come  any  farther ;  they 
were  cooking,  and  if  her  shadow  but  passed  the  cook-room 
door  they  would  have  to  throw  away  all  the  food  and  break 
the  earthen  vessels."  Gradually,  here  and  there,  by  patient 
kindness  and  perseverance,  Mrs.  Sale,  Mrs.  Mullens,  Mrs. 
Winter,  and  others,  gained  an  entry  into  homes  and  hearts ; 
workers  increased  year  by  year;  men  began  to  observe  and 
think,  and,  as  a  result,  were  willing  to  grant  the  same  favor 
to  women;  prejudices  weakened  and  gave  way,  until  now  we 
can  speak  of  many  of  the  old  difficulties  in  the  past  tense,  and 
find  our  most  serious  hindrance  in  the  limited  number  of 
Christian  women  who  are  as  willing  to  teach  as  these  multi- 
tudes are  willing  to  learn. 

In  our  own  mission,  as  in  most  others,  the  first  work  was 
done  in  the  orphanage.  In  a  land  of  wars  aud  famines,  of 
poverty  and  pestilence,  homeless  children  wandered  about — 
little  waifs  whose  near  relatives  had  perished,  or  were  them- 
selves so  poor  that  they  could  not  fill  the  mouths  of  their  own 
children.  The  mutiny  left  many  in  wretchedness  and  want; 
and  yet  when  an  orphanage  was  opened  in  the  latter  part  of 
1858,  there  was  so  much  opposition  by  both  Hindus  and  Mo- 
hammedans that  only  thirteen  girls  were  gathered  in  during 
the  first  two  years.  Then  a  famine  visited  the  already 
stricken  land,  and  the  number  trebled  at  once,  and  has  gone 
on  increasing  until  it  has  sometimes  reached  three  hundred. 

Without  restraint  or  fear,  the  little  girls,  brought  in  from 
the  roadside  or  the  desolated  huts,  were  taught  as  they  would 
have  been  in  a  Christian  home  or  school;  and  during  the 
years  since  then  they  have  themselves  been  teachers  in 
homes  and  schools,  and  now  their  daughters  are  bright  and 
promising  girls  in  all  our  classes. 


EDUCATION  AMONG   WOMEN.  371 

Next  to  the  orphanage  came  the  "  pice  schools" — little  day- 
schools,  where  poor  girls  were  paid  a  pice  (three-fourths  of  a 
cent)  a  day  for  coming  to  be  taught  for  a  few  hours.  This 
was  offered  because  their  parents  said  they  could  n.ot  spare 
them  from  the  work  that  helped  to  win  their  scanty  food. 
These  were  literally  ragged-schools,  and  it  was  a  pleasure  to 
give  anything  to  the  half-naked  and  half-starved  little  things, 
who  came  to  school  just  as  they  would  have  gone  to  carry 
stones  or  do  any  other  coolie's  work.  They  learned  to  sing 
and  pray  oftener  than  to  read,  being  married  too  soon  to 
make  much  progress  in  what  their  parents  believed  to  be  not 
only  folly,  but  presumption.  Hired  pupils  are  not  worth 
much,  and  these  schools  passed  away  as  soon  as  more  promis- 
ing work  began. 

Zenana-schools  were  opened  after  many  attempts  and  fail- 
ures. The  same  stories  were  told  that  are  now  used  to  excite 
opposition  in  China — that  the  missionaries  would  kill  the 
children  and  make  medicine  of  their  eyes,  or  that  they  would 
collect  a  ship-load  and  send  them  to  America  as  servants.  In 
our  mission-field  the  Mohammedans  were  the  first  to  yield, 
having  less  timidity  and  more  curiosity  than  the  Hindus. 
They  did  not  open  their  houses  to  visits  at  once,  but  were 
willing  to  attend  a  school  where  the  secular  instruction  was 
given  by  one  of  themselves  in  her  own  house.  They  did  not 
refuse  the  Scripture-lessons  given  by  the  missionary  lady  in 
charge.  There  were  a  number  of  such  schools  in  Luck- 
now  and  other  cities;  the  girls  were  carried  to  and  fro  in  a 
little  curtained  doli,  swung  on  a  pole  that  rested  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  bearers,  whose  hire,  like  all  other  expenses, 
was  paid  by  the  mission.  Neither  fees,  nor  price  of  books,  nor 
sewing  materials  could  be  collected  from  pupils.  Through 
the  acquaintance  begun  in  the  schools,  visits  were  made  in 
the  course  of  time  to  the  houses  of  the  pupils,  and  through 
them  to  their  friends  and  neighbors,  until  some  years  later 
this  zenana  visiting  and  teaching  became  more  interesting 
than  the  schools  themselves;  but,  judging  from  apparent 


372  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

results,  the  whole  work  has  been  comparatively  unprofitable. 
Three  women  were  baptized  in  Lucknow  in  1869;  but  soon 
after,  when  opposed  and  threatened,  they  fled  from  the  city, 
and  have  never  since  been  seen.  Others  have  given  a  half- 
way assent  to  Christianity ;  one  was  baptized,  but  after  a  few 
years  recanted  ;  some  confessed  faith  in  Christ  on  their  death- 
beds or  during  times  of  trial.  The  women  so  educated  are 
weekly  readers  of  the  zenana  paper;  they  are  happier  and 
wiser,  their  homes  are  cleaner  and  more  quiet ;  but  they  are 
not  known  as  belonging  to  Christ,  and  are  apparently  as 
steadfast  as  ever  in  observing  the  fasts  and  feasts  of  Islam. 

Hindu  schools  were  opened  in  the  towns  and  villages, 
generally,  but  not  always,  among  the  lower  castes.  They 
were  at  first  taught  by  pundits,  or  Brahman  teachers,  the  girls 
being  brought  together  daily  by  women  employed  for  the 
purpose;  but  the  place  of  the  pundit  was  filled  by  a  Christian 
woman  as  soon  as  one  could  be  provided.  Most  of  these 
schools  were  of  the  most  elementary  kind.  To  read  and 
write,  to  count  and  add  or  subtract,  and  learn  a  little  geo- 
graphy, is  a  good  education  in  a  country  where  only  five 
women  in  a  thousand  can  read,  even  now  after  years  of  mis- 
sion and  Government  instruction.  Even  this  little  makes  a 
quickly  apparent  difference  in  countenance,  speech,  manner, 
ambitious,  and  efforts,  which  would  be  a  reward  if  there  were 
no  other  results. 

In  1869  another  department  of  educational  work  began, 
which  has  increased  in  importance  and  interest  with  the  growth 
of  the  Christian  community.  In  the  first  published  report 
of  woman's  work  in  the  North  India  Conference,  this  passage 
occurs : 

"  For  ten  miles  around  the  city  of  Amroha  there  are  many  vil- 
lages, in  which  a  few  Christians  live  who  are  converts  from  an  ig- 
norant class  of  people.  There  are  no  schools  in  any  of  these  villages 
in  which  girls  can  learn  to  read,  and  the  Christians  are  so  scattered, 
and  so  few  in  each  village,  that  we  can  not  reach  them  through  vil- 
lage schools.  The  only  way,  therefore,  to  educate  the  daughters  of 


EDUCATION  AMONG  WOMEN.  373 

these  Christians  is  to  have  a  boarding-school  at  some  central  point. 
Such  a  school  has  been  opened  at  Amroha,  and  is  under  the  charge 
of  the  Rev.  Zahur-ul-Haqq  and  his  wife.  In  this  Christian  family 
the  girls  are  separated  from  heathen  influences,  are  taught  to  read 
and  write  and  work,  and  trained  in  everything  necessary  to  fit  them 
to  take  charge  of  a  village  school  or  to  regulate  a  Christian  home. 
There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  when  these  girls  return  to  their 
homes  they  will,  by  their  lives  and  words,  become  successful  evan- 
gelists to,their  people.  There  are  now  fifteen  girls  in  the  school,"  etc. 

The  Amroha  school  was  removed  to  Moradabad  three 
years  later,  the  latter  place  being  more  central,  and  contain- 
ing greater  facilities  for  instruction.  It  has  fulfilled  the  de- 
sign and  expectation  of  its  founders.  Christian  women  at 
many  places  in  Rohilkhand  and  the  adjoining  provinces 
learned  how  to  live  and  work  in  the  Moradabad  school.  It 
has  now  fine  buildings,  a  high-school  department,  and  a  class 
preparing  for  entrance  to  the  Calcutta  University. 

A  similar  school  had  been  opened  in  Paori,  Garhwal,  a 
few  years  before ;  but  some  of  the  girls  admitted  were  or- 
phans, and  others  Hindus,  who  cooked  and  ate  apart.  The 
next  boarding-school  was  opened  in  Bijnour,  in  1878,  and  in 
1880  others  were  started  in  Budaon  and  Pithoragarh.  The 
latter  was  begun  when  four  girls,  who  attended  the  day- 
school,  became  Christians;  there  was  no  longer  place  for 
them  in  their  Hindu  homes,  and  a  school-home  was  prepared 
for  them  by  Mrs.  Gray.  It  has  now  ninety  pupils.  Board- 
ing-schools of  this  kind  were  opened  later  in  Sitapore,  Gonda, 
I  Shahjehanpore,  and  other  centers,  and,  with  the  rapidly  in- 
creasing number  of  village  Christians,  and  the  opening  of 
new  districts,  many  more  will  be  required. 

These  schools  are  supported  by  scholarships  from  Amer- 
ica; but  fees  are  required  from  those  able  to  pay  them,  ac- 
cording to  the  ability  of  the  parents.  They  are  carefully 
collected,  even  though  not  amounting  to  more  than  a  dime 
a  mouth ;  some  are  not  able  to  pay  even  so  much. 

In  April,  1870,  a  school  of  a  higher  grade  and  on  a  dif- 


374 


INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 


ferent  basis  was  opened  in  Luck  now.  There  were,  here  and 
there,  Christians  in  good  circumstances  whose  sons  were 
studying  in  high-schools  and  colleges,  reading  and  talking 
English,  and  living  in  touch  with  the  new  life  of  the  empire. 
They  asked  for  a  school  where  their  daughters  might  have 
like  opportunities.  Some  were  in  remote  places,  and  a  board- 
ing-school was  necessary.*  They  were  not  rich,  but  had 

money  enough  to  pay 
boarding  fees  and  all  in- 
cidental expenses;  the 
mission,  with  a  grant 
from  Government,  has 
paid  for  teachers  and 
buildings.  This  school 
has  from  the  first  re- 
ceived all  pupils  sent, 
without  regard  to  race 
or  language,  and  has 
combined  in  one  happy 
family  Hindustani,  Ben- 
gali, Eurasian,  and  En- 
glish girls.  All  learn 
Urdu  and  English,  and 
all  are  trained,  as  far 
as  possible,  to  work  for 
Christ.  This  school  has 
now  a  collegiate  depart- 
ment, and  is  affiliated 

MISS  ELLEN  D'ABREU,  B.  M.  ' 

with  the  Allahabad  Uni- 
versity. But  while  girls  were  admitted  without  regard  to  race, 
there  were  some  who  wished  their  daughters  to  live  more  ex- 
pensively, with  European  instead  of  Indian  food  and  cus- 

*  These  two  young  ladies,  whose  portraits  are  given,  are  represent- 
atives of  the  Eurasian  community.  They  began  their  studies  at  Luck- 
now  and  Cawnpore,  and  received  the  degrees  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  and 
Bachelor  of  Medicine,  respectively,  at  Calcutta  and  Madras. 


EDUCATION  AMONG  WOMEN. 


375 


toms.  In  1874  a  Eurasian  gentleman,  whose  daughter  at- 
tended the  Lucknow  school  as  a  day-scholar,  called  to  ask  if 
she  might  be  received  as  a  boarder  in  the  family  of  the  lady 
missionaries  and  teachers.  She  had  to  be  refused  for  lack  of 
room ;  but  with  the  assurance  that  the  matter  would  be  kept 
in  mind,  and  that,  as  soon  as  possible,  a  school  would  be 
opened  for  English-speaking  girls.  This  was  done  a  year 
later,  at  Cawnpore,  and 
soon  after  at  Calcutta.; 
next  at  Naini  Tal,  at 
higher  rates,  to  cover 
the  expensive  living  of 
the  hills;  and  next  at 
Rangoon,  Poona,  and 
Bangalore.  Thus  a  field 
was  entered  which,  for 
both  sowing  and  reap- 
ing, had  been  largely 
in  the  hands  of  Roman 
Catholics.  A  class  of 
people  who  will  spend 
all  their  lives  in  India, 
and  be  identified  with 
its  good  or  ill,  socially 
and  religiously,  are  be- 
ing taught  in  a  mission- 
ary atmosphere,  and, 
when  possible,  trained 
for  Christian  work. 
They  cost  the  Missionary  Society  comparatively  little,  and 
even  begin  to  contribute  to  its  expenses.  The  Naini  Tal 
school  supports  nine  orphan  girls. 

The  girls  of  the  boarding-schools  are  from  Christian 
families,  unlike  those  of  China,  Japan,  and  other  mission- 
fields.  They  are  thus  receiving  advantages  impossible  for 
caste-bound,  zenana-locked  Hindus  and  Mohammedans,  and 


MRS.  SOPHIA  D'ABREU  THOMPSON,   B.  A. 


376  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

the  consequence  is  that  the  Christian  community  is  rising 
above  those  of  other  faiths  in  intelligence  even  more  rapidly 
than  it  is  increasing  in  numbers.  A  large  majority  of  the 
young  women  who  have  entered  and  passed  through  the 
universities  are  Christians. 

These  universities  were  in  advance  of  those  of  England 
in  opening  examinations  and  degrees  to  women.  Their  ad- 
mission was  not  questioned.  Miss  Chandra  Mukhi  Bose, 
the  first  candidate,  was  prepared  in  the  Girl's  School  at 
Dehra  Doon,  in  the  American  Presbyterian  Mission,  and 
passed  her  entrance  examination  in  1876.  Passing  through 
the  full  course  of  study,  she  received  the  degree  of  M.  A.,  in 
1884,  and  is  now  the  principal  of  the  Bethune  Girls'  College 
in  Calcutta.  Only  one  other  lady  has  passed  the  highest  ex- 
amination, and  she,  too,  is  a  Christian*  Fourteen  have 
passed  the  B.  A.  examinations,  of  whom  nine  were  Christians, 
the  others  members  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj.  In  all  470  girls 
have  matriculated  in  the  universities ;  a  large  number  when 
we  remember  that  the  first  one  appeared  only  sixteen  years 
ago,  and  that  candidates  are  subjected  to  a  very  thorough 
written  examination. 

Only  four  ladies  have  taken  the  degree  of  M.  B. — all 
Christians — but  there  are  a  number  of  licentiates  from  the 
university  medical  colleges.  Degrees  are  only  given  to  those 
who  have  passed  the  first  examination  in  arts  before  com- 
mencing their  medical  studies.  .  .  . 

It  may  be  well  to  insert  here  a  short  extract  from  "  My 
Missionary  Apprenticeship,"  published  eight  years  ago,  in 
which  the  origin  of  the  Moradabad  boarding-school  is  ex- 
plained, and  from  which  its  providential  mission  will  become 
more  apparent.  It  now  enrolls  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty 
boarders  annually.  In  all  our  missions  in  India  we  have 
eleven  hundred  Christian  girls  in  boarding-schools. 

"Just  before  Mrs.  Parker  left  for  America,  she  had  made  a 
small  beginning  in  the  way  of  a  boarding-school  for  girls,  and  had 
received  the  first  three  pupils  Her  plan  was  to  gather  in  the  village 


MISS  CHANDRA  MUKHI  BOSE,  M.  A. 


EDUCATION  AMONG  WOMEN.  379 

girls,  and,  after  giving  them  a  simple  education,  send  them  back 
again  to  their  homes,  where  they  might  he  expected  to  act  like  so 
much  leaven  among  the  native  Christians  in  the  villages.  Find- 
ing it  impossible  to  arrange  for  these  girls  in  Moradabad,  Mrs. 
Parker  had  made  them  over  to  Mrs.  Zahur-ul-Haqq,  who  lived  in  the 
city  of  Amroha.  For  a  time  the  people  held  aloof,  and  were  un- 
willing to  send  their  girls  away  from  home;  but  during  these  tours 
in  the  villages  I  succeeded  in  picking  up  a  few  pupils,  and  before 
the  close  of  the  year  the  school  began  to  assume  very  respectable 
proportions.  The  next  year  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
was  most  opportunely  founded,  and  the  school,  having  fallen  under 
its  fostering  care,  has  had  a  career  of  wonderful  prosperity.  It  now 
contains  more  than  one  hundred  pupils,  and  the  girls  who  have  been 
taught  in  it  are  exercising  the  most  wholesome  influence  all  through 
the  villages  of  that  region.  Natives  of  India,  like  natives  of  other 
countries,  wish  to  see  a  strange  thing  done  before  attempting  it 
themselves.  A  missionary  might  lecture  to  the  village  women  for 
years  without  inducing  them  to  change  their  ancient  habits  and 
superstitions;  but  a  better  way  is  simply  to  send  a  few  intelligent 
and  educated  young  women  of  their  own  class  among  them.  What 
precept  can  not  do,  example  easily  accomplishes.  I  am  more  and 
more  persuaded  that  Christian  boarding-schools  are  to  be  most  im- 
portant factors  in  the  future  development  of  Christianity  in  India. 
The  boarding-school  must  follow  close  in  the  pathway  of  the  evan- 
gelist. The  school  does  not  save  the  people ;  but  it  takes  up  the  work 
of  their  improvement,  and  aids  in  the  development  of  a  new  life 
which  the  gospel  brings  to  them." 


Chapter  XXVIII. 

MEDICAL  WORK  FOR  WOMEN. 

"  F)REACH  the  gospel,  and  heal  the  sick,"  was  the  com- 

1       mission   to  the  Seventy ;    and,   although  the   modern 

missionary  may  not  have  heard  the  formal  command  in  the 

beginning,  yet  he 
has  always  found 
the  use  of  medicine 
an  essential  part  of 
his  work.  Not  only 
because  he  wishes 
to  win  the  confi- 
dence and  friend- 
ship of  the  "people 
to  whom  he  has 
been  sent,  but  as 
one  of  the  suffering 
human  race,  he  can 
not  pass  by  on  the 
other  side,  even  to 
preach  the  gospel, 
and  leave  his  fel- 
low-creatures in  un- 
relieved pain.  Nat- 
urally he  has  with 
him  the  simple  rem- 
edies known  in  all  households,  and  these  gradually  increase 
with  his  experience  and  knowledge,  and  the  demands  made 
upon  him,  until  medicine  often  has  the  most  important  place 
in  his  traveling  outfit  when  he  goes  among  the  villages. 
Often  he  is  stopped  in  the  road  to  look  at  a  wen,  a  goitre,  or 


MISS  C.  A.  SWAIN,  M.  D. 


380 


MEDICAL  WORK  FOR  WOMEN.  381 

an  abscess;  or  one  comes  running  across  fields  to  beg  him  to 
stop  and  advise  about  a  burn,  or  the  wound  from  an  ox's 
horn,  or  a  scorpion's  sting.  The  fevers  and  ordinary  com- 
plaints brought  to  his  notice  are  legion,  and  the  sick  are 
sometimes  carried  to  him  on  cots,  as  to  his  Master  of  old. 

But  these  are  men.  Within  the  walls  of  palace  and  hut 
alike,  the  women  have  for  ages  suffered  according  to  their 
lot,  relieved  only  by  practitioners  who  judged  their  symptoms 
from  hearsay,  and  who  knew  little  of  the  anatomy  or  physiol- 
ogy of  the  human  body  except  what  they  had  learned  from 
observation  of  cause  and  effect.  Some  of  these  men  have 
natural  gifts  of  healing,  but  the  majority  make  sad  mistakes 
when  they  do  their  best. 

It  long  since  became  apparent  that  the  only  doctors  who 
could  relieve  these,  the  greatest  sufferers  in  the  land,  must 
themselves  be  women.  No  one  else  could  approach  them, 
even  if  they  were  dying.  It  was  hoped,  too,  that  the  desire 
to  be  relieved  from  pain  would  make  those  who  kept  in  the 
most  rigid  seclusion  willing  to  be  visited,  and  that  thus  the 
way  of  access  would  be  opened  for  the  Bible,  and  all  the 
gracious  influences  it  carries  with  it,  to  hearts  and  homes. 

The  first  effort  in  this  direction  was  made  by  Dr.  Hum- 
phrey, a  medical  missionary  of  the  North  India  Conference, 
who,  in  1867,  began  training  a  class  of  young  women  from 
the  Orphanage,  hoping  to  send  them  where  he  could  not  go 
himself.  Meanwhile  the  first  lady  medical  missionary,  Miss 
C.  A.  Swain,  M.  D.,*  of  Castile,  New  York,  a  graduate  of 

*  Dr.  Swain  enjoys  the  honorable  distinction,  not  only  of  being  the 
pioneer  lady  physician  in  India,  but  the  first  lady  physician  ever  sent 
out  by  any  missionary  society  into  any  part  of  the  non-Christian  world. 
After  some  years  of  .uccessful  service  in  North  India,  she  accepted  an 
appointment  as  resident  physician  at  the  court  of  the  Raja  of  Ketri,  a 
small  State  in  Rajpootana,  where  she  still  remains,  doing  a  good  work, 
and  occupying  a  position  of  commanding  influence.  No  restraint  is  put 
upon  her  work  as  a  missionary,  and  her  position  offers  a  striking  com- 
ment upon  the  constant  assertions  of  certain  officials  that  medical  work 
among  the  women  of  India  must  be  kept  wholly  apart  from  missionary 
agencies. 


382  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

the  Woman's  Medical  College  of  Philadelphia,  was  sent  to 
India  by  the  newly  organized  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  of  the  Methodist  Church.  Another  class  in  the  Or- 
phanage had  been  taught  English  by  Mrs.  Thomas,  and  were 
thus  prepared  to  receive  lessons  from  Dr.  Swain  as  soon  as 
she  arrived.  Besides  this,  an  interesting  and  successful  prac- 
tice came  into  her  hands  at  once.  There  had  been  fears  in 
some  minds  that  the  women  were  too  timid  and  superstitious 
to  take  treatment,  even  from  a  lady  physician  ;  but  from  the 
beginning  not  only  the  poorer  and  middle  classes  came  to  the 
dispensary,  but  the  high  caste  and  wealthy  were  among  the 
patients,  coming  to  her  in  their  closed  conveyances,  or  send- 
ing for  her  to  their  houses.  Zenana  doors  previously  barred 
against  missionary  visits  were  opened,  and  opportunities  for 
doing  good  were  widened  and  increased. 

The  need  of  a  hospital  was  soon  felt,  and  was  met  by  the 
gift  from  the  Nawab  of  Rampore,  the  ruler  of  a  Moham- 
medan State  near  by,  of  a  large,  well-situated  house,  sur- 
rounded by  ample  grounds.  To  this  building  enlarged  accom- 
modations were  added  by  the  Missionary  Society,  and  in  this 
first  woman's  hospital  in  India  the  second  medical  class  was 
trained,  and  also  compounders  and  nurses  were  taught  the 
work  they  were  to  do  in  neighboring  places. 

Other  missionary  societies  were  moving  in  the  same  di- 
rection, and  ladies  were  sent  from  America  and  England  as 
rapidly  as  they  could  be  prepared  for  the  work;  but  the  need 
was  so  much  greater  than  the  possible  supply  from  abroad,  that 
admission  for  female  students  was  asked  in  the  Indian  med- 
ical colleges.  The  universities,  led  by  Madras,  opened  their 
doors  to  women  medical  students.  They  were  welcomed  and 
treated  with  uniform  respect  by  students  and  professors,  na- 
tive as  well  as  foreign — a  fact  gratefully  recorded  in  view  of 
the  very  different  treatment  women  have  received  from  West- 
ern medical  colleges.  The  pupils  from  our  few  high-schools 
who  were  prepared  to  take  the  course  of  study,  which  was  in 
the  English  language,  entered  the  colleges ;  and  a  vernacular 


MEDICAL  WORK  FOR  WOMEN.  383 

training-school,  with  a  three  years'  course  of  lectures,  was 
opened  in  Agra.  Interest  so  increased  that  scholarships  were 
offered  by  non-Christians  as  well  as  by  missionary  societies. 
Municipal  Boards  made  appropriations,  and  princes  promised 
student-support  and  after-salary  to  women  on  condition  that 
.they  would  work  a  given  number  of  years  in  their  do- 
minions. 

Into  the  midst  of  this  universal  interest  came  the  Dufferin 
movement,  bringing  with  it  Government  influence,  system, 
and  combination  of  effort.  The  romantic  story  has  been 
often  told,  and  is  given  in  full  in  Bishop  Hurst's  "  Indika," 
of  the  English  missionary  who  went  from  Lucknow  to  treat 
the  Rani  of  Pannah,  from  whom  she  was  charged  to  carry  a 
message  to  Queen  Victoria,  begging  her  to  do  something  for 
the  relief  of  the  suffering  women  of  India.  The  Queen  re- 
ceived the  message  and  the  little  gift  that  accompanied  it,  and 
her  kind  heart  was  touched  by  the  appeal.  She  passed  it  on 
to  Lady  Dufferin,  the  wife  of  the  outgoing  Viceroy,  who  ar- 
rived in  India  with  her  brain  busy  and  her  heart  burdened 
with  plans  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  work.  The 
"  Countess  of  Dufferin  Fund  "  was  organized  soon  after  her 
arrival,  in  consultation  with  leading  officials,  missionaries, 
and  philanthropists.  The  organization  met  with  less  prej- 
udice than  anything  else  that  could  have  been  undertaken 
for  women,  and  by  many  it  received  an  enthusiastic  response. 
Wealthy  Indians  had  been  accustomed  to  making  large  dona- 
tions for  charitable  purposes,  and,  with  the  stimulus  of  vice- 
regal approval  united  to  their  personal  interest,  they  freely 
opened  their  purses  for  this  cause.  English  officials  have 
also  given  largely. 

During  the  seven  years  since  the  association  was  organ- 
ized, twelve  million  rupees  have  been  spent  in  the  erection  of 
buildings,  and  over  a  million  rupees  have  been  invested  as 
endowment.  Nine  lady  doctors  with  English  qualifications, 
and  thirty-one  certificated  assistants,  are  now  working  under 
the  Association,  while  224  persons  are  studying  on  Dufferin 


384  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

scholarships  at  the  medical  colleges  and  schools  in  the  differ- 
ent provinces.  There  are  a  Central  Committee,  Provincial 
Committees,  and  again,  under  these,  local  committees,  so  that 
the  benefits  of  the  fund  are  reaching  out  to  all  the  important 
cities  and  towns  of  the  empire.  Where  lady  doctors  can  not 
be  obtained — and  they  are  still  very  few — assistants  work  under 
the  civil  surgeons  of  the  stations.  The  number  of  patients 
treated  during  the  past  year  was  465,000. 

The  objects  of  the  Association  are  set  forth  to  be :  Medi- 
cal tuition,  including  the  teaching  and  training  in  India  of 
women  as  doctors,  hospital  assistants,  nurses,  and  mid  wives; 
medical  relief,  including  the  establishment  of  hospitals  and 
dispensaries,  to  be  under  the  superintendence  of  women  ;  the 
supply  of  trained  nurses  and  midwives. 

The  Association  is  philanthropic,  but  not  missionary  in 
any  other  sense.  Its  employees  are  pledged  not  to  interfere 
in  any  way  with  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  patients  that  come 
under  their  care.  Missionary  hospitals  and  dispensaries  are 
invited  to  be  affiliated  with  the  National  Association ;  but  as 
there  are  no  benefits  to  be  derived  from  such  a  union,  they 
have  generally  preferred  to  remain  apart.  Their  work  has 
increased  and  prospered,  and  although  they  have  been  accom- 
panied by  the  Bible-reader  and  the  evangelist,  and  have 
themselves  spoken  freely  of  the  hope  of  a  suffering,  sinning 
world,  they  have  had,  not  only  free  access  to  the  homes  of  the 
people,  but  have  won  the  grateful  affection  of  many  hearts. 

Medical  missions,  though  begun  by  Americans,  have  been 
taken  up  with  greater  enthusiasm  by  the  English  societies. 
They  have  twice  as  many  lady  doctors  in  the  field,  with  as- 
sistants more  or  less  trained  in  general  practice,  midwifery  or 
nursing.  In  all  there  are  now  more  than  fifty  lady  mission- 
ary physicians  in  India  mission-work,  nearly  all  of  whom  are 
in  charge  of  hospitals  or  dispensaries.  A  few  are  independ- 
ent practitioners,  but  are  none  the  less  doing  genuine  mission- 
work. 

The  medical  work  has  been  a  spur  to  the  higher  educa- 


MEDICAL   WORK  FOR  WOMEN.  385 

tion  of  women.  "What  for?"  was  often  asked  by  visitors 
to  girls'  high-schools,  and  even  grammar-schools  where  En- 
jlish  was  taught.  In  a  land  where  the  masses  were  so  ig- 
lorant,  and  where  a  woman's  life  had  so  many  limitations, 
these  critics  failed  to  see  the  good  that  might  result  from 
these  exceptional  advantages  to  the  few  who  were  free  to 
receive  them.  But  here  was  a  call  to  usefulness,  and  it 
brought  with  it  promise  of  fair  and,  in  the  higher  depart- 
ments, lucrative  compensation.  Indian  women  who  have 
taken  a  full  course  of  study  are  receiving  two  hundred 
rupees  a  month  from  the  Duiferin  Fund,  and  those  in  the 
lower  positions  are  also  well  paid.  The  missionary  societies 
in  not  give  so  much ;  but  even  the  salaries  they  pay  are 
>rizes  by  those  who  wish  to  assist  in  the  education  of  younger 
sisters,  or  the  support  of  parents.  The  study  of  medicine 
requires  a  thorough  previous  education,  and  only  those  thus 
prepared  can  compete  for  the  Dufferin  scholarships.  Can- 
didates must  have  passed  certain  examinations  before  they 
can  be  admitted  to  the  schools,  and  must  have  received  a 
degree  in  Arts  before  they  can  receive  the  degree  of  M.  D., 
although  a  licentiate's  certificate  will  be  given  if  they  pass 
the  medical  examinations  of  the  five  years'  college  course 
successfully.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  Brahmans,  not 
many  women  have  had  this  education  except  those  who  have 
received  it  in  Christian  schools,  and  of  these  only  the  Chris- 
tians themselves  are  willing  to  take  the  comparatively  public 
place  required  by  a  medical  student.  They  have  not  been 
entangled  in  early  marriages ;  they  are  encouraged  by  friends, 
instead  of  being  held  back  by  the  fears  and  prejudices  of  their 
parents.  It  thus  comes  about  that  the  large  majority  of  stu- 
dents in  the  Duiferin  training-schools,  and  a  still  greater  ma- 
jority in  the  university  colleges,  are  Christians.  In  the  Agra 
school  seven-eighths  of  the  students  are  Christians ;  in  Madras, 
of  forty-two  lady  students  now  studying  in  the  Medical 
College,  only  one  is  non-Christian.  The  three  ladies  who 
have  taken  the  degree  of  M.  B.  in  that  university  are  all 

25 


386  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA, 

Christians,  and  nearly  all  the  licentiates  are  of  the  same 
faith.  The  Christians  are  largely  in  the  majority  in  Lahore, 
Bombay,  and  Calcutta.  Some  of  these,  when  they  go  out, 
will  be  independent  practitioners;  some  will  work  in  the 
missions,  but  the  majority  will  be  employed  by  the  Dufferin 
Association — all  will  be  so  employed  who  receive  scholarships 
from  that  fund.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  Dufferin  As- 
sociation, secular  as  it  is  supposed  to  be,  and  supported 
largely  by  the  money  of  Hindus  and  Mohammedans,  must 
depend  upon  Christian  women  for  its  success.  This  gives 
an  opportunity  to  show  the  capacity  and  trustworthiness  of 
women  to  those  who  have  not  only  doubted,  but  derided 
their  claims  to  such  virtues;  it  gives  Christian  womanhood 
a  prominence  which  otherwise  could  not  have  been  attained 
for  years,  and  is  one  of  the  most  active  forces  in  bringing 
the  whole  Christian  community  to  the  front  among  the  many 
classes,  castes,  and  countries  of  the  Empire  of  India. 


LUCKNOW  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOL-GIRLS. 


Chapter   XXIX. 
WOMAN  IN  THE  CHURCH. 

THE  work  of  a  successful  missionary  in  a  country  like 
India,  often  illustrates  important  phases  of  Christian  life 
and  work  in  the  primitive  church.  Society  throughout  the 
whole  Oriental  world  has,  since  the  earliest  days,  been  so 
much  alike  in  many  of  its  features,  that  the  modern  mission- 
ary in  India,  Persia,  or  even  China,  frequently  finds  himself 
in  the  midst  of  associations  which  remind  him  of  events  re- 
corded in  the  book  of  Acts,  or  alluded  to  in  Paul's  epistles. 
This  is  notably  true  in  matters  relating  to  the  position  of 
women  in  the  mission  churches  of  India.  Among  converts 
from  Judaism  the  early  Christian  women  no  doubt  enjoyed  a 
degree  of  liberty  which  the  women  of  India  have  never 
known;  but  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  cities,  and  more  es- 
pecially in  all  regions  farther  east,  the  women  were  kept  in 
a  state  very  much  resembling  that  in  which  their  Indian 
sisters  live  at  the  present  day.  "Women  have  always  held  a 
strictly  subordinate  position  in  India,  and  hence  it  would 
be  natural  to  expect  to  find  them  occupying  a  similiar  posi- 
tion in  the  Christian  church.  This  becomes  the  more  in- 
evitable when  it  is  remembered  that  women,  with  rare  ex- 
ceptions, have  never  had  opportunities  for  improving  their 
minds,  and  are  consequently  much  more  ignorant  than  their 
husbands  or  brothers.  They  are  also  more  superstitious, 
and  much  more  strongly  attached  to  their  ancient  religious 
systems,  as  well  as  to  a  great  multitude  of  customs  and  tra- 
ditions which  are  more  or  less  hostile  to  the  Christian  spirit. 
As  might  be  expected  under  such  circumstances,  woman 
does  not  occupy  a  very  prominent  position  in  mission 

389 


390  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

churches  as  first  organized  in  India.  She  is  more  unwilling, 
for  instance,  to  give  up  the  pernicious  custom  of  infant  mar- 
riage than  her  husband,  and  is  more  easily  tempted  to  bring 
back  an  idol  into  her  house  and  offer^to  it  the  customary 
worship,  especially  in  a  time  of  temptation ;  as,  for  instance, 
when  a  child  is  dangerously  ill.  She  is  wedded  to  all  the 
ways  of  her  ancestors,  and  shrinks,  sometimes  with  timidity, 
but  as  often  from  sheer  obstinacy,  from  giving  up  the  cus- 
toms in  which  she  has  lived,  or  accepting  those  which  are 
utterly  foreign  to  her  notions  of  right  and  propriety. 

The  missionary  in  India  finds  no  little  light  shed  upon 
some  of  the  perplexing  counsels  given  by  the  Apostle  Paul 
to  some  of  his  Greek  converts,  as  he  deals  with  the  various 
questions  which  arise  from  time  to  time  among  his  converts. 
It  is  amazing,  and  at  the  same  time  often  amusing,  to  note 
how  perplexed,  not  only  the  great  commentators,  but  the 
rank  and  file  of  modern  disputants  as  well,  become  ovei 
certain  seemingly  contradictory  directions  given  Christian 
women  by  the  great  and  good  apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  One 
man  seems  to  notice  only  that  Paul  commands  the  women  to 
keep  silence  in  the  churches,  while  another  makes  prominent 
the  fact  that  he  gives  direction  as  to  the  manner  in  whicl 
they  are  to  pray  and  prophesy  in  the  assemblies.  The  most 
extreme  and  absurd  conclusions  are  drawn  from  these  in- 
cidental directions,  and  attempts  are  made  to  lay  down  great 
principles,  applicable  to  all  ages  and  to  all  countries,  al- 
though it  is  certain  that  the  apostle  had  no  such  thoughts 
in  his  mind.  In  India,  for  instance,  the  wife  occupies  a 
position  in  the  household  very  much  like  that  of  one  of  her 
children.  She  lives  in  absolute  obedience  to  the  law  of  her 
husband,  and  if  the  rod  is  used  to  enforce  discipline,  it  is 
applied  to  her  as  readily  and  as  severely  as  to  one  of  her 
daughters.  The  right  of  a  husband  to  punish  his  wife 
never  questioned,  and  hence  nothing  could  be  more  radical 
or  more  revolutionary  than  to  introduce  into  a  Hindu  family 
the  new  principle  that  wives  are  not  to  obey  their  husbands, 


WOMAN  IN  THE  CHURCH.  391 

inasmuch  as  both  are  equal  in  Christ. '  In  India,  as  in  the 
churches  established  by  Paul  and  Silas,  the  new  doctrine  of 
liberty  is  sometimes  liable  to  abuse,  and  it  would  be  strange 
if  some  poor,  weak  women  did  not  at  times  fancy  that  equal- 
ity with  their  husbands  amounted  in  fact  to  superiority. 
Family  discipline  in  such  a  case  is  at  an  end  in  a  moment, 
and  utter  domestic  chaos  is  sure  to  supervene.  A  sensible1 
missionary,  who  can  take  in  the  whole  situation,  will  never 
hesitate  to  adopt  the  same  line  of  policy  which  Paul  pursued, 
and  say  to  his  converts:  "  Wives,  obey  your  husbands." 
In  a  good  'sense,  guarded  and  protected  by  Christian  law  and 
by  the  Christian  spirit,  this  is  good  advice  in  every  age ;  but 
aside  from  questions  of  abstract  right  or  wrong,  among  a 
people  like  the  converts  found  in  India,  any  contrary  advice 
would  produce  inevitable  and  interminable  mischief. 

In  like  manner,  circumstances  arise  from  time  to  time 
when  it  becomes  prudent  to  forbid  the  Christian  women  to 
speak  in  certain  assemblies.  Some  years  ago  I  visited  a 
mission  station,  and  in  the  evening  went  out  with  a  mission- 
ary and  a  party  of  Christians  to  a  service  in  the  bazaar. 
The  party  marched  in  procession,  after  the  manner  of  the 
Salvation  Army.  Two  or  three  grown-up  girls  were  in  the 
company,  and  not  only  joined  in  the  singing,  but  stood  on 
a  stone  platform  in  the  street,  and  spoke  somewhat  briefly  to 
the  people.  I  walked  in  the  rear  of  the  procession,  where  I 
could  see  and  hear  to  the  best  advantage,  and  also  listened 
very  carefully  to  all  that  was  said  by  the  people  during  the 
speaking.  The  result  was  that  when  I  returned  to  the  mis- 
sion-house, I  earnestly  advised  the  missionary  and  his  wife 
not  to  let  those  young  women  join  in  the  procession  again, 
and  especially  not  to  permit  them  to  speak  or  sing  in  the 
bazaar  as  they  had  done  that  evening.  It  was  perfectly 
clear  to  me  that  it  was  improper  for  them  to  do  so.  At  the 
same  time,  there  were  other  occasions  when  I  would  have 
approved  their  speaking  and  singing  in  public,  and,  had  I 
been  present,  would  no  doubt  have  be«n  quite  ready  to  give 


392  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

directions  as  to  how  they  should  engage  in  these  exercises. 
It  is  very  true  that  young  girls  in  the  Salvation  Army  do 
speak  in  the  most  public  manner,  not  only  in  large  rooms, 
but  often  in  the  open  air,  in  the  presence  of  rude  and  vul- 
gar men.  I  have  often  been  present  when  they  did  so,  and 
have  given  close  attention  not  only  to  what  the  speaker 
said,  but  to  the  effect  upon  the  audience.  I  do  not  doubt 
that  such  young  women  often  do  good  by  addresses  of  this 
kind,  and  yet,  after  a  wide  and  careful  observation,  I  have 
become  convinced  that  there  is  a  marked  impropriety  in 
women,  and  especially  young  women,  engaging  in  that  kind 
of  work.  At  the  same  time  I  am  equally  free  to  say  that 
these  same  Salvation  Army  women  often  do  good  by  their 
public  addresses,  when  the  ordinary  proprieties  of  society, 
according  to  the  standard  of  the  community  in  which  they 
are  working,  are  carefully  observed.  I  have  not  only  de- 
fended such  speaking  on  their  part  under  proper  restrictions, 
but  have  often  taken  part  in  their  meetings,  and  aided  them 
both  by  my  presence  and  voice.  In  Paul's  time,  there  were 
occasions  when  the  public  meetings  were  such  as  women 
could  not  engage  in,  without  doing  violence  to  the  notions 
of  propriety  which  were  entertained  by  the  people  of  that 
age  and  of  that  part  of  the  world.  No  man  or  woman  of 
good  judgment  will  ever  outrage  the  sense  of  propriety  en- 
tertained by  the  general  public,  and  Paul  simply  advised  his 
churches  to  observe  the  rules  of  ordinary  propriety.  It  is 
much  the  same  in  India  at  the  present  day.  The  voice  of 
woman  is  heard  in  our  assemblies  very  frequently ;  but  there 
are  occasions  when  it  would  be  improper  to  allow  women  to 
occupy  a  conspicious  place  in  the  assembly,  or  to  take  a  prom- 
inent part  in  the  proceedings. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  our  Christian 
women  in  India  are  not  worthy  of  the  high  position  which 
Christ  has  assigned  to  his  female  disciples  in  the  Universal 
Church.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  work  they  are  in  a 
minority,  and  during  the  first  generation  their  defective 


WOMAN  IN  THE  CHURCH.  393 

education  does  much  to  keep  them  in  the  background ;  but 
from  the  first  we  have  had  invaluable  workers  among  our 
Christian  women,  and,  as  our  field  enlarges  and  our  oppor- 
tunities increase,  we  find  their  help  more  and  more  indis- 
pensable. Much  of  the  work  among  their  own  sex  can  be 
done  by  women  only,  and  the  great  ingathering  of  recent 
years  has  convinced  me  that  we  must  look  to  God  for  a  great 
host  of  female  evangelists,  whose  chief  work  shall  be  among 
the  recently  baptized  converts.  We  can  not  reach  them  by 
any  other  means.  I  have  seen  large  companies  gathered 
together  in  country  places,  within  easy  reach  of  even  the 
poorest,  and  yet  in  every  instance  the  men  outnumber  the 
women  at  least  four  to  one.  Sometimes,  indeed,  hardly  any 
women  are  present.  It  is  useless  to  lament  the  fact ;  we 
must  simply  accept  it  as  we  find  it.  No  man  of  good  sense 
will  battle  hopelessly  against  the  timidity  of  women.  Ac- 
count for  it  as  you  may,  the  simple  fact  is,  that  either  the 
women  are  timid  and  will  not  go  into  the  great  assemblies 
where  the  men  eagerly  flock  together,  or  that  many  of  them 
are  superstitious,  or  even  hostile  to  the  object  of  the  meet- 
ing. In  either  case  the  logic  of  the  situation  remains  the 
same.  Instead  of  fighting  hopelessly  against  these  inevita- 
ble facts,  the  better  way  is  to  commission  our  more  enlight- 
ened Christian  sisters  to  go  among  them  as  messengers  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  and  give  them  the  gospel  in  its  simplicity 
and  fullness.  Already  a  few  devoted  Phebes  and  Priscil- 
las  are  engaging  in  this  work,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  a 
great  host  will  soon  follow  in  their  footsteps. 

The  mere  mention  of  this  probability  may  possibly  alarm 
some  readers  who  dread  as  an  unspeakable  calamity  the  pos- 
sibility of  women  being  inducted  into  the  ministerial  office. 
To  all  such  I  have  only  to  say  that  there  is  no  cause  of 
alarm.  The  Church  of  Christ  has  never  suffered  from  an 
honest  and  earnest  attempt  to  obey  the  Master  in  making 
him  known  to  every  creature.  The  trouble  with  many  per- 
sons is,  that  they  are  in  bondage  to  notions  which  have  sprung 


394  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

up  in  modern  times,  and  which  are  not  found  in  the  New 
Testament.  One  of  these  notions  is  an  exaggerated  idea  of 
the  sanctity  of  certain  ministerial  functions  which  in  the  New 
Testament  are  uniformly  treated  as  incidental  rather  than 
vital,  and  which  were  never  intended  to  hamper  the  Church 
of  Christ,  instead  of  helping  her  to  fulfill  her  mission. 
Questions  of  law,  order,  and  propriety  can  never  be  ignored 
or  treated  lightly  without  danger  to  the  interests  of  the 
church ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  the  freedom  of  the  disciple 
to  work  in  the  Master's  name  must  never  be  jeopardized. 
God  never  intended  that  the  Christian  church  should  be 
divided  into  "  union  "  and  "  non-union  "  workers,  and  that, 
under  the  plea  of  respect  for  the  ministry,  the  vast  majority 
of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  should  be  forbidden  to  work 
in  the  Master's  name. 

No  little  interest  has  been  excited  of  late  years  in  the 
question  of  the  possible  ordination  of  women  to  the  office  of 
the  ministry,  and  it  is  a  little  unfortunate  for  us  that  both 
parties  to* this  discussion  have  turned  toward  India  for  illus- 
trations affecting  the  right  or  wrong  of  the  question.  Some 
of  those  who  are  eager  to  see  women  ordained  ask  from  time 
to  time  if  a  necessity  does  not  exist  for  an  ordained  female 
ministry,  especially  among  the  women  who  are  secluded  in 
the  zenanas.  I  wish  to  answer  this  question  frankly,  and 
yet  with  a  strict  regard  for  existing  facts.  I  do  not  like  the 
unqualified  use  of  the  term  "  ordained,"  or  of  the  phrase  "  the 
ministerial  office,"  as  applied  to  women.  It  is  better  for  us 
to  go  back  as  near  as  possible  to  the  New  Testament  stand- 
ard. Indeed,  of  late  years  I  have  been  amazed  more  and 
more,  as  our  work  expands,  to  see  how  closely  it  conforms  to 
the  order  which  seems  to  have  been  adopted  in  the  primitive 
church.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  believe,  beyond  a  doubt, 
that  as  soon  as  our  work  begins  to  advance  with  rapidity 
and  power  among  the  higher  classes  in  the  cities,  it  will  be- 
come necessary  to  do  one  of  two  things — either  to  authorize 
Christian  women  to  enter  the  zenanas  and  administer  bap- 


WOMAN  IN  THE  CHURCH.  395 

tism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  or  to  tell  converts  who  are 
confined  in  the  zenanas  that  they  must  do  without  those  or- 
dinances until  such  time  as  God  providentially  opens  their 
way  to  receive  them.  For  instance,  in  a  case  which  occurred 
in  Calcutta  a  very  few  years  ago,  a  medical  lady  physician 
found  the  wife  of  an  intelligent  Hindu,  who  was  suffering 
from  an  incurable  disease,  and  felt  it  her  duty  to  tell  her 
that  she  must  soon  die.  The  poor  woman  had  been  instructed 
by  a  Presbyterian  lady  missionary,  and  at  once  said  that  if 
she  died  she  wished  to  die  a  Christian.  The  husband  was  a 
tender-hearted  and  good  man,  and  when  appealed  to  replied 
that  he  had  no  objection  whatever  to  his  wife  becoming  a 
Christian ;  but  two  things  were  impossible :  In  the  first 
place,  she  could  not  go  out  to  receive  baptism  in  the  church ; 
and,  in  the  second  place,  he  could  not  permit  a  man  to  enter 
her  apartment  to  baptize  her.  He  said  it  was  not  his  own 
wishes  or  feelings  that  influenced  him,  but  his  regard  for  his 
relatives.  Caste  rules  and  the  state  of  public  feeling  were 
such  that  it  would  greatly  afflict  his  relatives,  and  he  could 
not,  for  their  sakes,  suffer  it.  Cases  like  this  may  be  ex- 
pected to  turn  up  every  year,  and  almost  every  day,  espe- 
cially when  our  work  begins  to  gain  headway  in  the  great 
cities.  Now,  what  is  to  be  done  in  such  an  emergency? 
For  one,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  lady  missionary  who 
carried  the  gospel  to  this  poor  dying  woman  should  have  been 
authorized  to  administer  baptism  to  her.  It  is  easy  enough 
for  a  man  in  America  with  strong  convictions,  if  not  preju- 
dices, to  say  that  she  would  get  to  heaven  without  baptism ; 
but  such  a  reply  is  as  unjust  as  it  is  cruel.  A  dying  woman 
has  a  right  to  baptism,  if  she  desires  it,  and  no  theologian  or 
ecclesiastical  politician  has  any  right  to  deny  her  this  privilege. 
It  remains  for  the  Church  to  decide  on  what  terms  it  shall  be 
given  her.  For  one,  I  do  not  care  to  insist  on  the  point  of 
ordination.  I  prefer  the  word  "authorization."  We  must 
not  be  in  bondage  to  ordinances,  and  in  a  case  of  this  kind 
it  would  be  as  wise  as  it  would  be  Scriptural,  if  a  Christian 


396  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

woman  formally  authorized  to  do  so  were  to  administer  the 
sacraments  to  a  suffering  disciple  to  whom  no  one  else  had 
access. 

Let  no  one  be  alarmed,  however,  by  this  frank  statement, 
and  assume  at  once  that  a  radical  innovation,  amounting 
almost  to  a  great  revolution,  is  about  to  be  introduced  into 
India.  We  shall  do  nothing  hastily.  There  are  those  in  In- 
dia not  members  of  our  own  Church  who  are  more  than 
ready  to  act  in  this  matter,  and  very  recently  certain  ladies 
have  avowed  their  purpose  to  baptize  converts  in  zenanas, 
with  the  consent  of  husband  or  father,  as  the  case  may  be, 
whenever  the  emergency  arises.  These  ladies  would  prob- 
ably be  called  Ritualistic  by  some  of  our  own  people,  who 
shrink  from  the  very  thought  of  allowing  a  Methodist  lady 
to  exercise  such  a  privilege ;  but  they  are  practical,  far-see- 
ing, and  earnest  women,  who  have  seen  the  unwisdom  of 
trying  to  avoid  the  inevitable.  For  my  own  part,  I  have 
decided  that  there  shall  be  no  haste  in  the  matter,  and  that 
no  such  baptisms  shall  take  place  until  the  circumstances  are 
such  that  the  whole  world  can  see  the  absolute  necessity  of 
the  course  pursued.  In  other  words,  when  God  makes  it  clear 
that  the  duty  should  be  performed,  and  so  clear  that  no  place  for 
doubt  remains,  then  the  important  step  will  be  taken.  This 
may  or  may  not  have  an  important  bearing  upon  the  ordina- 
tion of  women  to  the  Christian  ministry.  With  regard  to 
that  subject,  I  beg  to  say  that  I  am  not  careful  to  answer  in 
such  a  matter.  We  are  working  and  legislating  for  the  sal- 
vation of  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  the  Eastern  World, 
and  are  only  incidentally  interested  in  the  controversies 
which  affect  the  Churches  of  the  West.  It  is  our  fixed  pur- 
pose to  do  nothing  which  will  in  any  way  make  us  parties 
to  any  controversy  in  America ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  we  are 
equally  anxious  not  to  be  held  back  or  hampered  by  the  fact 
that  parties  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe  are  discussing 
questions  which  have  more  or  less  of  a  bearing  upon  our 
own  situation.  In  other  words,  we  view  the  whole  subject 


WOMAN  IN  THE  CHURCH.  397 

from  the  most  practical  point  of  view,  and  seek  only  to 
know  how  we  shall  fulfill  our  mission  in  lifting  the  women 
of  the  East  to  the  high  position  which  Christ  has  prepared 
for  them  in  his  Church. 

In  our  mission-work  in  India  we  have,  from  the  first, 
thankfully  accepted  woman's  service  in  every  form  which 
promised  any  practical  usefulness.  Such  service  is  usually 
rendered  in  quiet  ways,  and  with  the  meek  spirit  which  so 
peculiarly  adorns  a  Christian  woman ;  but  it  is  none  the  less 
effective  and  invaluable.  The  particular  title  which  the 
woman  bears  does  not  matter  much,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
does  not  by  any  means  always  define  the  nature  of  her  work. 
"  Bible  woman  "  is  a  very  common  term  applied  to  a  Chris- 
tian woman  who  goes  about  among  the  women  in  their 
homes,  with  a  Bible  in  her  hand,  which  she  reads  and  some- 
times expounds.  When  giving  an  account  of  their  work, 
these  simple  women  often  say :  "  I  visited  so  many  families 
to-day,  and  preached  in  so  many  houses."  They  have  never 
learned  to  use  the  word  preach  in  its  modern  and  limited 
sense,  and  do  not  know  any  better  than  to  call  every  proc- 
lamation of  the  gospel,  whether  in  a  pulpit  or  on  a  well- 
curb,  or  by  the  door  of  a  lowly  mud  hut,  preaching.  Other 
women  are  teachers,  a  smaller  number  are  zenana  visitors,  a 
very  few  are  evangelists,  while  many,  especially  all  wives  of 
preachers,  are  appointed  to  "  woman's  work "  in  a  general 
way,  the  meaning  being  that  they  are  expected  to  go  among 
the  women  freely,  and  lend  a  helping  hand  at  any  time  and  in 
any  way  which  may  present  itself.  All  possible  pains  are 
taken  to  introduce  system  and  organization  into  the  work  of 
our  Christian  sisters,  and  every  year  this  work  is  becoming 
more  effective  and  satisfactory. 


Chapter   XXX. 

i 

THE  DEPRESSED'  CLASSES. 

I  BORROW  the  phrase  which  stands  at  the  head  of  this 
chapter  from  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  Bombay  census 
of  1881.  The  well-known  caste  system  of  the  Hindus  em- 
braces not  only  the  three  traditional  higher  castes,  with  all 
their  minute  subdivisions,  but  also  those  who  are  popularly 
known  in  the  sacred  books  as  Sudras.  The  reader  in  Amer- 
ica has  no  doubt  been  led  to  suppose  that  the  Sudra  is  an 
out-caste;  but  such  is  by  no  means  the  case.  Relatively 
speaking,  he  is  usually  a  respectable  person,  although  in  early 
times  he  probably  did  occupy  a  position  similar  to  that  of 
the  out-castes  of  the  present  day.  In  Bengal  it  is  common 
to  hear  large  classes  of  the  poorer  people  spoken  of  as 
Nama-Sudras;  that  is,  Sub-Sudras.  This  term  describes 
several  so-called  castes  or  classes  who  compose  the  very  low- 
est social  strata,  and  are  known  in  various  parts  of  India  by 
different  names.  They  may  have  originally  sprung  from  a 
common  race,  but  it  is  more  likely  that  similar  circumstances 
in  different  parts  of  the  empire  at  an  early  period  in  Indian 
history  compelled  them  to  take  a  position  wholly  outside  the 
more  powerful  and  respectable  communities  embraced  by  the 
rules  of  Hindu  caste.  In  Southern  India  it  is  common  to 
hear  persons  spoken  of  as  caste-Hindus  to  distinguish  them 
from  those  who  are  supposed  to  be  wholly  outside  the  pale 
of  the  caste  system.  In  other  parts  of  the  country  these 
lower  classes  are  called  out-castes,  pariahs,  sweepers,  scav- 
engers, and  other  names.  They  themselves,  however,  by  no 
means  reject  caste,  but  are  divided  and  subdivided  after  the 
manner  of  the  more  respectable  Hindus,  and  often  are  found 
398 


THE  DEPRESSED  CLASSES.  399 

as  jealous  of  their  caste  privileges  as  any  Brahmans  in  the 
empire.  The  census  officer  mentioned  above  applied  the 
phrase  "Depressed  Classes"  to  these  people,  and  it  describes 
very  accurately  their  condition  as  found  in  India  at  the 
present  day. 

To  understand  the  position  of  these  people,  one  must  be- 
come acquainted  with  the  Hindu  social  system.  As  society 
is  at  present  organized,  it  becomes  a  necessity  for  such  an 
inferior  people  to  be  found  in  every  village.  An  intelligent 
lady,  who  had  been  brought  up  in  India,  was  once  speaking 
to  me  about  a  certain  tract  of  country  in  which  she  wished 
to  have  a  mission  established.  I  asked  her  if  there  were 
any  low-caste  people  in  the  villages  who  were  interested  in 
Christianity.  She  replied  that  she  did  not  know  what  par- 
ticular class  of  such  people  lived  there,  but  that  some  such 
class  would  certainly  be  represented.  "  You  are  sure  to  find 
low-caste  people  everywhere  in  India.  They  are  needed  in 
every  village,  and  the  people  of  India  could  not  get  along 
without  them.  They  may  belong  to  one  or  another  tribe, 
or  one  or  another  low-caste,  but  they  are  sure  to  be  there." 
Many  of  these  people  are  practically  serfs,  and  in  earlier 
days  most  of  them  sustained  such  a  relation  to  their  high- 
caste  neighbors.  At  the  present  day  millions  of  them  are 
employed  as  common  laborers  by  the  petty  village  farmers, 
who  pay  them  in  cash  perhaps  five  or  six  dollars  a  year  to 
each  family,  with  enough  inferior  kinds  of  grain  to  meet  the 
demands  of  hunger.  In  every  village,  also,  one  or  more 
shoemakers  will  be  found,  perhaps  two  or  three  carpenters, 
and  a  blacksmith,  and  other  representatives  of  the  commoner 
trades.  Nearly  all  artisans  belong  to  low-castes.  The  shoe- 
'maker  is  very  much  lower,  however,  than  the  blacksmith ; 
and  the  blacksmith,  again,  than  the  carpenter.  The  lowest 
of  all  is  the  sweeper.  He  is  the  scavenger  wherever  found 
in  India,  and  both  in  city  and  country  village  is  regarded 
as  an  utter  out-caste. 

The  leading  body  of  these  depressed  classes  is  that  known 


400  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

as  the  Chamars.  They  have  been  introduced  to  American 
readers  frequently  as  leather-dressers,  and  the  title  belongs 
to  them  to  this  extent,  that  all  Indians  who  work  in  leather 
are  drawn  from  this  class.  The  name  also  implies  that  in 
early  times  this  was  the  occupation  assigned  to  them  as  a 
people.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  comparatively  few  of 
them  ever  work  in  leather.  They  are  farmers  and  day- 
laborers  for  the  most  part,  and  are  found  in  all  the  villages 
of  North  India.  The  total  number  of  Chamars  in  all  India 
has  not  yet  been  reported  by  the  latest  census,  but  is  prob- 
ably between  eleven  and  twelve  millions.  In  Northern  In- 
dia these  Chamars  are  very  numerous.  In  fact  they  stand 
at  the  head  of  the  list  in  the  Northwest  Provinces  and  Oudh  ; 
that  is,  in  the  populous  region  embraced  within  the  bounds 
of  the  North  India  Conference.  They  are  almost  a  million 
in  advance  of  the  Brahmans,  and  more  than  two  millions 
in  advance  of  the  Rajputs.  The  sweepers  in  the  same  ter- 
ritory number  nearly  half  a  million,  while  other  castes, 
standing  very  little  if  at  all  higher  in  the  social  scale  in  the 
same  territory,  number  about  a  million  and  a  half.  In 
Southern  and  Western  India  corresponding  castes  are  known 
by  various  names,  such  as  Malas,  Madigas,  Mhars,  Dheds, 
etc.  In  the  Panjab,  again,  another  large  class  appears,  reck- 
oned a  little  below  the  Chamars,  and  a  trifle  above  the 
sweepers,  known  as  Chuhras. 

It  is  impossible  to  gather  from  the  census-tables  a  correct 
estimate  of  the  whole  number  belonging  to  the  depressed 
classes  of  India.  Some  census  officers  speak  of  them  simply 
as  belonging  to  aboriginal  races.  Others  report  them  with 
local  names,  while  others,  again,  confound  mere  occupation 
with  caste.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  a  careful  reckon- 
ing would  show  that,  leaving  out  the  MohammedanSj  not  less 
than  twenty  per  cent  of  the  people  generally  known  as 
Hindus  belong  to  these  different  classes.  By  adding  the 
aboriginal  tribes,  who,  with  a  few  exceptions,  have  similar 
religious  notions,  and  occupy  a  social  grade  very  little,  if  at 


THE  DEPRESSED  CLASSES.  401 

all,  higher  than  that  of  the  sub-castes  among  the  Hindus,  it 
would  probably  bring  up  the  proportion  to  the  figure  men- 
tioned above.  It  is  certainly  a  moderate  estimate  to  place  the 
total  population  belonging  to  the  depressed  classes  at  forty 
millions. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  these  people,  with  very  rare  ex- 
ceptions, are  illiterate  and  subject  to  all  the  infirmities  which 
are  inseparable  from  popular  ignorance.  They  are  super- 
stitious, timid,  subject  to  strong  prejudices,  like  other  Indians, 
and,  for  the  most  part,  destitute  of  that  manly  ambition 
which  forms  an  indispensable  quality  in  every  progressive 
people.  Some  of  their  habits,  also,  are  very  repulsive.  With 
few  exceptions  they  are,  in  most  parts  of  the  country,  pop- 
ularly known  as  carrion-eaters.  The  term  is  more  offensive 
than  the  facts  in  the  case  exactly  warrant,  and  yet  at  best 
it  reveals  a  standard  of  civilization  among  them  which  is 
certainly  low  enough.  They  can  not  be  said  to  be  carrion- 
eaters  in  the  same  disgusting  sense  that  the  jackal  or  the  vul- 
ture is;  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  count  themselves 
fortunate  when  they  find  an  animal  which  has  recently  died, 
either  by  accident  or  of  disease.  The  skin  of  the  animal  be- 
comes the  perquisite  of  those  who  remove  it,  while  the  flesh 
is  feasted  upon  with  great  eagerness,  sometimes  by  a  whole 
village.  It  may  possibly  seem  to  lessen  the  enormity  of  this 
deplorable  weakness  on  their  part  if  I  state  that,  in  some  of 
the  hill  districts,  Hindus  of  higher  castes  do  not  shrink  from 
similar  entertainments.  I  once  had  a  sheep  tied  by  the  neck 
near  the  edge  of  a  precipice,  and  while  grazing  the  poor  crea- 
ture suddenly  stumbled  over  and  was  strangled.  I  gave 
orders  to  have  it  buried ;  but  before  the  carcass  was  removed 
a  respectable  Brahman  came  to  me  and  begged  it  for  himself. 
I  was  the  more  surprised  because  orthodox  Hindus  are  not 
supposed  to  eat  mutton  under  any  circumstances.  This  in- 
cident occurred  in  the  mountains,  and  I  have  since  been  told 
by  Brahmans  of  the  plains  that  the  man  who  asked  for  the 
sheep  would  not  be  recognized  in  India  proper  as  a  Brahman. 

26 


402  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

The  practice  of  carrion-eating  is  not  only  universal  among 
these  depressed  classes,  but  one  of  the  first  problems  which 
confronts  the  missionary  who  works  among  them  is  that  of 
breaking  up  the  habit.  Abstinence  from  carrion  is  every- 
where made  a  condition  of  membership  in  the  Christian 
church,  and  those  who  become  Christians  in  time  learn  to 
abstain  from  it ;  but  only  those  who  have  lived  in  India  and 
mingled  with  the  very  poor  people,  can  understand  how 
strong  the  temptation,  in  such  a  case,  is  at  the  outset.  In- 
stances also  occur  in  which  the  missionary  can  not  but 
hesitate  before  giving  a  decision  against  the  unlawfulness  of 
a  feast,  in  which  the  flesh  which  is  served  up  is  of  doubtful 
quality.  For  instance,  one  of  our  preachers  recently  found 
himself  in  a  village  where  the  simple  people  were  about  to 
sit  down  to  a  feast  which  had  been  provided  for  them  by  an 
obliging  tiger,  which  had  killed  a  cow  in  the  vicinity.  This 
was  a  case  of  an  animal  which  had  not  died  either  of  disease 
or  by  accident;  and  yet  it  was  not  exactly  meat  which  is  sold 
in  the  shambles,  and,  consequently,  hardly  came  within  Paul's 
list  of  admissible  articles  of  food.  The  preacher,  on  this  oc- 
casion, thought  it  best  for  him,  as  a  matter  of  expediency,  to 
join  in  the  feast  and  ask  no  questions ;  but  he  paid  a  severe 
penalty  for  his  indulgence.  He  had,  in  fact,  never  eaten  the 
flesh  of  the  cow  before ;  and  the  double  recollection  that  he 
was  eating  not  only  a  flesh  he  had  always  scrupulously 
avoided,  but  also  that  of  an  animal  which  had  not  been  killed 
for  the  market,  completely  prostrated  him. 

Many  years  ago  it  was  found  by  the  missionaries  in 
Southern  India  that  many  of  the  people  belonging  to  these 
depressed  classes  were  peculiarly  accessible  to  the  Christian 
missionary.  Most  of  the  converts,  indeed,  in  Southern  India 
were  drawn  from  this  grade  of  people ;  and  more  recently  a 
similar  work  has  commenced  in  various  parts  of  North  India. 
A  question  at  once  presents  itself,  which  has  occasioned  no 
little  inquiry  in  missionary  circles,  both  in  India  and  else- 
where, as  to  whether  it  is  wise  policy  to  devote  much  time  or 


THE  DEPRESSED  CLASSES.  403 

attention  to  people  who  occupy  so  low  a  social  status.  It  is 
alleged,  on  the  one  hand,  that  their  motives  can  hardly  be  of 
the  highest  order ;  that  their  character  as  Christians  must  be 
more  or  less  unsatisfactory ;  that  it  is  impossible  to  raise  them 
to  positions  of  influence  in  the  community;  and  that,  so  far 
from  helping  in  the  general  work  of  converting  India,  they 
will  probably  become  a  barrier  which  will  stand  directly  in 
the  way  of  missionary  progress.  On  the  other  hand,  atten- 
tion is  called  to  the  fact  that  God  manifestly  seems  to  be 
leading  the  missionaries  in  the  direction  of  these  people ;  that 
it  is  they  who  are  coming  to  the  missionary,  rather  than  the 
latter  who  goes  to  them ;  that  their  motives,  if  not  always  of 
the  purest  and  highest  order,  are,  all  things  considered,  quite 
as  pure  as  those  of  other  people  ;  that  it  is  impossible  for  such 
men  to  be  blind  to  the  fact  that  they  can,  by  becoming 
Christians,  improve  their  condition,  and  that  there  is  no  harm 
in  their  perceiving  it;  that  they  will  not  permanently  stand 
in  the  way  of  access  to  the  higher  caste,  while,  even  if  they 
did,  we  dare  not  hold  aloof  from  them  on  that  account. 
Happily  for  all  parties  concerned,  experience  soon  settles 
most  of  the  questions  raised  in  this  controversy.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  these  depressed  classes  are,  in  all  parts  of 
India,  beginning  to  discover  that  Christianity  has  much  to 
oifer  them,  and  that  in  the  Christian  missionary  they  can  find 
not  only  a  spiritual  guide,  but  an  invaluable  friend.  They 
find  that  Christianity  alone  opens  for  them  a  doorway  by 
which  their  children  can  enter  the  public  schools ;  Chris- 
tianity alone  can  secure  for  them  any  public  employment 
worthy  the  name;  Christianity  alone  can  point  out  to  them 
a  way  of  escape  from  the  long  and  weary  condition  of  semi- 
bondage  in  which  they  and  their  forefathers  have  lived ; 
Christianity  alone  can  remove  the  stigma  of  social  degrada- 
tion which  has  been  so  cruelly  imprinted  upon  them  as  a 
people ;  and  Christianity  alone  can  give  them  the  hope  of  a 
happier  life  in  this  world,  and  a  better  life  in  the  world  to 
come.  In  the  Panjab,  in  the  extreme  part  of  South  India, 


404  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Telugu  country,  among  the  Mhars 
of  the  Bombay  coast,  and  in  various  districts  of  Central  India, 
and  throughout  the  Northwest  Provinces,  large  numbers  of 
these  people  are  beginning  to  move  steadily  toward  Chris- 
tianity. The  missionary  can  hardly  choose  his  course,  even 
if  disposed  to  do  so.  In  the  face  of  such  a  movement  he 
may,  if  possessed  by  a  doubtful  spirit,  hesitate  for  a  short 
time;  but  unless  recreant  to  his  commission  as  a  messenger 
of  the  world's  Saviour,  he  is  compelled  to  meet  these  people 
and  give  them  a  glad  welcome  to  the  great  brotherhood  of 
Christian  disciples. 

It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the  fact  that  the  great  ma- 
jority of  Christian  converts  come  from  these  depressed 
classes  will  prove  a  barrier  to  the  reception  of  the  gospel  by 
the  higher  castes.  So  far  as  the  experiment  has  been  tried, 
it  seems  to  be  working  in  the  opposite  direction.  When  the 
Brahman  and  Rajput  begin  to  discover  that  the  despised  Cha- 
mar  or  sweeper  of  their  village  has  suddenly  overtaken  them  in 
the  race,  and  established  his  superiority  as  a  man  of  character 
and  intelligence,  they  can  not  but  be  impressed  by  the  fact. 
I  have  been  told  that  in  the  Telugu  country,  where  the 
American  Baptists  have  achieved  such  amazing  success 
among  these  depressed  classes,  many  leading  Brahmans  have 
become  profoundly  impressed  by  what  they  have  seen,  and 
begin  to  ponder  the  question  of  becoming  Christians  them- 
selves, with  a  new  interest. 

No  one  needs  feel  surprised  when  told  that  even  some 
missionaries  in  India,  who  have  seen  more  or  less  of  the 
daily  life  of  these  depressed  classes,  are  inclined  to  doubt 
the  possibility  of  elevating  them  either  morally  or  socially 
after  they  become  Christians.  The  simple  statement  that 
many  of  them  have  earned  the  appellation  of  carrion-eaters 
will  suffice  to  destroy  all  hope  of  their  social  renovation  in 
the  minds  of  multitudes,  even  of  intelligent  people.  But  we 
are  always  prone  to  forget  the  social  rock  from  which  we  our- 
selves have  been  hewn,  as  well  as  the  pit  from  which  our  own 


THE  DEPRESSED  CLASSES.  405 

feet  have  been  taken.  Three  centuries  ago  many  of  the  an- 
cestors of  the  most  cultured  members  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  were  addicted  to  the  practice  of  feasting  upon  puddings 
made  of  blood  drawn  from  living  cows.  We  forget,  too, 
that  three  centuries  ago  there  were  sections  of  Great  Britain 
in  which  the  half-savage  farmers  knew  no  other  method  of 
plowing  than  that  of  tying  the  tails  of  their  oxen  to  the 
plow.  The  use  of  harness  was  an  innovation  to  them  un- 
known. The  descendants  of  these  rude  and  utterly  ignorant 
people  conveniently  forget  many  pages  in  the  history  of  their 
ancestors  which  it  would  do  them  good  to  study.  So  far  as 
the  possibility  of  elevating  these  Indian  people  of  low  caste 
is  concerned,  I  venture  to  affirm  that  the  problem  has 
already  been  solved.  I  have  seen  before  my  own  eyes  the 
second  generation  of  Christians  drawn  from  this  class  grow 
up  to  a  new  and  nobler  life  than  their  ancestors  ever  knew. 
More  than  that,  I  have  seen  them  overcome  the  prejudices 
of  their  high-caste  neighbors  to  an  astonishing  extent,  and 
not  only  win  but  command  their  respect  without  an  effort. 
In  regions  where  two  or  three  generations  ago  it  would  have 
been  considered  an  outrage  for  a  man  belonging  to  any  one 
of  these  depressed  classes  to  presume  to  learn  to  read  or  to 
seek  an  education  in  any  form  whatever,  I  have  seen  the 
Christian  convert  not  only  acquiring  knowledge,  but  impart- 
ing it  without  exciting  either  indignation  or  surprise.  Two 
years  ago,  when  visiting  a  high-school  in  North  India,  my 
attention  was  called  to  a  young  man  who  was  pronounced 
the  most  successful  teacher  in  the  institution.  The  principal 
of  the  school  said  to  me  that  he  passed  more  boys  at  the  an- 
nual examinations  than  any  other  teacher;  and  when  I  was 
in  his  room  I  noticed  among  his  pupils,  not  only  Brahmans 
and  other  Hindus  of  high  rank,  but  also  Mohammedans  of 
the  better  class.  This  successful  teacher  was  the  son  of  a 
sweeper,  and  his  low  origin  was  perfectly  well  known,  and 
yet  I  saw  him  in  the  very  act  of  preparing  Brahman  boys 
for  admission  to  the  university.  This  one  illustration  would 


406  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

suffice  to  show  what  is  possible  in  the  way  of  revolutionizing, 
the  position  of  these  lowly  people,  but  it  is  one  among  a  hun- 
dred. We  have  probably  now  more  than  a  hundred  teachers 
at  work  in  North  India,  all  of  whom  belonged  by  birth  to 
the  depressed  classes.  A  writer  in  a  recent  number  of  the 
Madras  Times,  in  discussing  this  subject,  says:  "Twenty- 
five  years  ago  I  baptized  a  sweeper.  That  sweeper's  son  is 
now  a  successful  school-master,  and  has  coached  more  than 
a  hundred  Brahmans  and  Kshatrias  through  the  difficulties 
of  high-school  examinations.  The  sons  of  sweepers  are  in 
Government  offices,  are  pushing  their  way  on  the  railways ; 
they  are  studying  law  and  engineering,  as  well  as  theology 
and  medicine." 

Another  fact,  which  has  been  amply  demonstrated  in  the 
history  of  our  own  mission,  is  the  certainty  that  Christians 
drawn  from  the  most  lowly  of  the  people  not  only  sometimes 
rise  as  individuals,  but  also  as  a  community.  The  native 
Christian  in  the  villages  of  Rohilkhand  to-day  stands  very 
much  higher  than  he  did  twenty,  or  even  ten,  years  ago. 
One  thing  which  has  contributed,  perhaps,  more  to  this  re- 
sult than  anything  else,  has  been  the  remarkable  influence 
exerted  by  educated  native  Christian  women.  Whatever 
may  be  true  of  the  men,  the  most  blind  can  not  help  seeing 
that  the  Christian  women  who  have  been  educated,  and  in  a 
measure  refined,  in  the  mission-schools,  stand  head  and 
shoulders  above  all  the  other  women  in  the  villages.  The 
men  themselves  can  not  but  feel  their  own  inferiority  in  the 
presence  of  such  women.  Not  only  can  they  read  and  write, 
but  there  is  something  about  their  self-respecting  carriage 
which  arrests  attention  and  commands  respect.  The  wives 
and  daughters  of  both  Mohammedans  and  Hindus  are  for 
the  most  part  wholly  illiterate,  and  if  the  men  made  no  ad- 
vance whatever,  the  superior  intelligence  of  the  women 
would  quickly  raise  the  whole  community  in  the  estimation 
of  the  public. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  a  Christian, 


THE  DEPRESSED  CLASSES.  407 

especially  if  possessed  of  a  fair  degree  of  common  sense  and 
genuine  modesty,  can  win  his  way  in  the  esteem  of  the  most 
haughty  Brahman  or  Mohammedan  members  of  the  com- 
munity, is  found  in  the  case  of  one  of  our  preachers  in  North 
India.  When  the  Rev.  F.  M.  Wheeler,  now  of  the  Puget 
Sound  Conference,  was  a  missionary  in  Moradabad,  his  at- 
tention was  drawn  to  a  boy  belonging  to  the  sweeper  class, 
who  was  driving  a  buffalo  attached  to  a  conservancy  cart. 
He  seemed  to  be  a  bright  boy,  and  Mr.  Wheeler  offered  him 
a  chance  to  secure  an  education.  He  quickly  accepted  the 
offer,  and  in  due  time  became  fairly  well  educated  in  his 
own  language,  and,  after  a  preliminary  service,  was  made  a 
preacher.  Some  four  or  five  years  ago  he  was  appointed  to 
a  town  in  which  all  the  Christians  were  sweeper  converts, 
and  consequently  held  in  the  lowest  estimation.  It  was 
probably  known  that  he  himself  had  come  from  the  same 
despised  class.  When  he  went  to  buy  any  article  in  the 
common  market,  he  was  required  to  spread  a  sheet  on  the 
ground,  on  which  the  seller  would  place  the  articles  pur- 
chased. They  were  never  handed  to  the  preacher  as  they 
would  be  to  an  ordinary  purchaser.  He  would  then  lay  the 
money  which  was  to  pay  for  the  articles  on  the  ground,  and 
the  seller  would  pick  it  up,  refusing  to  be  contaminated  by 
taking  even  money  from  the  hands  of  one  so  utterly  degraded. 
The  wise  preacher  never  protested  against  such  an  indignity. 
When  he  had  any  business  with  the  native  magistrate  of  the 
town,  he  was  required  to  stand  at  a  distance  and  state  his 
case,  precisely  as  other  sweepers  would  be.  He  always  ac- 
cepted his  lot  without  complaint,  acting  as  if  unconscious  of 
any  indignity.  Time,  however,  began  to  work  in  his  behalf. 
The  people  could  not  but  respect  him  as  they  began  to  learn 
his  worth.  By  and  by  he  was  no  longer  required  to  have 
the  articles  which  he  purchased  laid  upon  a  sheet  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  seller's  shop.  Then  he  began  to  be  treated 
with  more  deference  by  the  native  magistrate  and  all  other 
officials,  and,  after  some  two  or  three  years,  when  he  had 


408  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

any  business  with  the  magistrate,  he  would  not  only  be 
courteously  received,  but  a  chair  would  be  set  out  for  him, 
and  he  invited  to  take  a  seat.  In  other  words,  he  was 
treated  in  all  respects  like  a  respectable  native  gentleman, 
and  when  the  census  of  1891  was  taken  he  was  made  census 
officer  for  the  whole  town.  This  one  case  will  illustrate  the 
workings  of  the  general  law.  If  we  make  these  people 
worthy  of  respect,  they  will  receive  all  the  social  deference 
to  which  they  prove  themselves  entitled.  The  change  will 
not  come  in  a  day  or  a  year  ;  but  they  are  sure  to  rise  in  the 
social  scale — that  is,  provided  we  make  them  really,  and  not 
nominally,  Christians. 

It  has  been  truly  said  more  than  once  in  recent  years 
that  the  Indian  Brahmans  of  the  future — that  is,  the  highest 
social  class  of  the  Indian  future — will  be  those  who  shall  first 
have  received  Christianity  in  all  its  purity  and  integrity. 
No  artificial  scheme  can  ever  do  for  any  people  what  the 
simple  faith  of  Christ  invariably  accomplishes  when  it  is  re- 
ceived in  all  sincerity.  In  some  parts  of  India,  it  is  true,  the 
Christian  community  has  not  risen  as  rapidly  as  some  of 
these  statements  would  indicate ;  but  in  all  such  cases  it  will 
be  found  that  the  fault  lies  either  with  the  first  teachers,  who 
failed  to  give  the  people  the  right  impetus,  or  that  some  mis- 
take, such  as  the  neglect  of  education,  or  the  toleration  of 
caste  practices,  or  drinking  habits,  or  something  else  of  the 
kind,  has  intervened  to  prevent  the  progress  which  otherwise 
would  have  been  inevitable. 

The  fact  that  not  a  few  of  our  Indian  Christians  look 
with  grave  concern  upon  the  present  growing  movement 
among  the  depressed  classes  in  favor  of  Christianity,  ought 
not  to  excite  much  surprise  when  all  the  facts  of  the  case  be- 
come known.  The  reader  in  America  can  hardly  understand 
how  very  low  in  the  esteem  of  the  general  public  these  de- 
pressed classes  really  stand.  The  contempt  of  the  white 
population  in  the  South  for  the  Negroes  in  the  days  of  slav- 
ery was  not  so  great  as  that  which  is  felt  by  the  high-caste 


THE  DEPRESSED  CLASSES.  409 

Indian  for  his  out-caste  neighbors.  Before  the  days  of  En- 
glish rule,  in  many  parts  of  the  country  the  out-castes  were 
not  permitted  to  walk  on  the  public  roads,  or  to  carry  um- 
brellas; and  in  some  districts  of  Southern  India,  in  compara- 
tively recent  years,  the  missionaries  encountered  fierce  oppo- 
sition from  the  higher  castes  when  they  attempted  to  teach 
their  female  converts  to  dress  with  ordinary  modesty.  For 
ages  all  women  belonging  to  the  lowest  castes  had  been  for- 
bidden to  wear  any  covering  on  their  bosoms,  and  when  such 
women  became  Christians  their  high-caste  neighbors  felt  per- 
sonally outraged  because  the  missionaries  encouraged  them 
to  dress  with  ordinary  womanly  modesty.  The  matter  was 
appealed  to  the  Government,  and  had  to  be  tested  in  the 
courts  before  the  Christian  women  could  secure  even  this 
small  measure  of  protection.  The  absurd  thing  about  the 
whole  procedure  was,  that  the  high-caste  people  regarded 
themselves  as  outraged  by  the  impudence  of  the  low-caste 
women.  In  some  remote  districts  some  of  these  customs 
still  prevail.  When  I  lived  in  Garhwal,  in  1866-7,  the 
school-boys  frequently  told  me  that  I  had  for  the  first  time 
introduced  into  that  region  the  custom  of  allowing  low-caste 
people  the  ordinary  rights  of  the  general  community.  To 
the  present  day,  in  remote  parts  of  that  mountain  district,  a 
low-caste  man  is  required  to  leave  the  road  when  he  sees  a 
high-caste  person  approaching  him.  I  remember  on  one  oc- 
casion, when  on  an  itinerating  tour,  I  was  passing  a  carpen- 
ter's shop,  and,  wishing  to  talk  with  the  men  who  were  at 
work  inside,  I  entered  and  took  a  seat.  A  young  Brahman 
who  had  been  walking  with  me  wished  to  follow;  but  before 
doing  so  he  deliberately  ordered  the  carpenters  out  of  their 
own  shop,  and  was  obeyed  in  a  moment.  The  poor  fellow 
looked  very  foolish  when  I  arose  and  followed  the  low-caste 
men  out,  telling  him  that  it  was  them  I  came  in  to  talk  with, 
and  that  I  cared  nothing  for  his  presence  whatever. 

It  tests  the  humility  as  well  as  the  courage  of  ordinary 
Christians,  not  only  to  see  people  so  despised  admitted  to  the 


410  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

general  Christian  community,  but  to  see  them  coming  by 
hundreds  and  by  thousands,  with  the  certain  prospect  of  be- 
coming in  a  short  time  overwhelmingly  in  the  majority  so 
far  as  the  whole  Christian  community  is  concerned.  This 
humiliation  is  felt  much  more  keenly  in  India  than  it  would 
be  in  countries  where  the  caste  idea  does  not  prevail,  at  least 
in  the  acute  form  in  which  it  is  found  in  India.  Hence,  if 
many  who  are  opposing,  or  at  least  severely  criticising,  the 
present  movement,  were  to  state  their  feelings  frankly  and 
fully,  they  would  admit  that  what  they  fear  is  that  Chris- 
tianity will  be  degraded  in  public  estimation,  and  soon  be 
regarded  as  merely  the  religion  of  out-castes.  Such  a  feeling 
is  natural,  but  at  the  same  time  wholly  misplaced  and  un- 
worthy of  any  persons  bearing  the  Christian  name.  That  it 
exists  is  certain,  and  for  one  I  am  not  surprised  to  discover 
that  it  meets  a  certain  amount  of  sympathy  among  even  in- 
telligent persons  in  America.  I  have  often  been  asked,  in  a 
tone  which  betrayed  the  most  serious  concern,  if  it  were  not 
true  that  the  mass  of  our  converts  were  drawn  from  the 
dregs  of  the  population.  To  such  a  question  I  of  course  re- 
ply in  the  negative.  The  word  "dregs,"  when  used  in  a 
social  sense,  is  sometimes  equivocal.  Mr.  Spurgeon  once 
aptly  said  that  we  have  no  more  to  fear  from  the  dregs  at  the 
bottom,  than  from  the  scum  that  floats  upon  the  surface  of 
society.  The  most  depressed  people  are  by  no  means  neces- 
sarily the  worst  people.  Those  who  rallied  around  our  Saviour 
himself  when  on  earth  were  as  heartily  despised  by  the 
religious  leaders  of  their  day  as  the  native  Christians  of  In- 
dia are  by  the  Brahmans  of  our  own  time. 

The  missionaries  of  India  would  not  have  chosen  to  have 
the  great  majority  of  their  converts  taken  from  the  lower 
classes  if  the  question  had  been  put  to  them  at  the  outset; 
but  God's  ways  are  not  man's  ways,  and  he  saw  clearly  that 
if  the  Christian  church  in  India  should  at  first  be  composed 
wholly  of  the  wise  and  the  great,  according  to  the  standard 
of  this  world,  it  would  be  ages  upon  ages  before  the  lower 


THE  DEPRESSED  CLASSES.  411 

castes  would  ever  be  reached.  For  a  score  of  reasons  it  is 
better  that  Christianity  should  begin  the  great  work  of  ren- 
ovating India  from  the  very  foundation  of  society.  Here 
are  multitudes  who  at  once  are  the  most  needy  and  the  most 
accessible.  They  will  first  be  won,  and  when  they  have  become 
Christians  their  position  will  be  forever  assured.  The  change 
will  probably  work  a  practical  revolution  in  the  empire, 
possibly  within  the  next  century.  A  very  few  of  our  Indian 
statesmen  begin  to  perceive  this,  and  look  with  anxiety  to  the 
great  upheaval  which  must  come  when  these  depressed  mill- 
ions begin  to  understand  their  rights  as  men  and  Christians. 
One  Government  official,  a  few  years  ago,  in  a  report  of  the 
work  under  his  jurisdiction,  remarked  that  if  the  Chamars  of 
his  district  became  Christians  in  a  body,  it  would  work  a  rev- 
olution, the  effects  of  which  no  one  could  foretell.  He  con- 
fessed that  the  very  prospect  filled  his  own  mind  with  dismay. 
What  this  gentleman  clearly  perceived  in  his  own  particular 
district,  holds  true  with  regard  to  almost  the  whole  empire. 
But  it  is  needless  to  speculate  with  regard  to  popular  con- 
tingencies of  this  kind.  Not  only  India,  but  the  world,  is 
on  the  eve  of  more  revolutions  than  we  short-sighted  mortals 
can  possibly  foresee.  It  becomes  us  only  to  do  our  duty, 
meet  the  demands  of  the  present  hour,  and,  like  Daniel,  stand 
in  our  lot  till  the  end,  whatever  that  end  may  ber  which  God 
has  determined  shall  come. 


Chapter   XXXI. 
OPEN  DOORS. 

EVERY  missionary  who  worked  in  our  circle  thirty  years 
ago  will  have  a  vivid  recollection  of  the  manner  in 
which  every  door  of  access  to  the  people  seemed  then  to  be 
barred  against  us.  Wherever  the  missionary  turned  in  those 
days  he  was  met  by  a  social  as  well  as  religious  barricade 
which  challenged  his  progress,  and  it  seemed  to  him  a  per- 
petual wonder  that,  haying  come  so  far  with  the  most  im- 
portant message  which  any  man  could  bear  to  his  fellow-men, 
and  to  a  people  who  were  at  heart  kindly  disposed  towards 
every  stranger,  he  could  nevertheless  gain  but  indirect  access 
to  the  hearts  and  homes  of  those  whom  he  wished  to  reach. 
If  he  found  any  earnest  inquirer,  he  had  to  seek  for  him ;  and 
when  he  succeeded  in  discovering  one,  he  had  to  observe  con- 
stant watchfulness  lest  some  sudden  obstruction  should  rise 
between  him  and  the  one  whom  he  wished  to  benefit.  In 
those  days  the  missionary  literally  was  obliged  to  go  to  the 
people,  rather  than  have  them  come  to  him.  He  not  only 
found  it  imperative  upon  him  to  go  among  them,  and  live 
within  sight  and  hearing  of  the  ceaseless  multitude  which 
passed  before  him,  but  also  to  search  out  every  possible 
private  pathway  by  which  to  gain  more  immediate  access,  not 
only  to  the  community,  but  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  each 
particular  person.  Thirty  years,  however,  have  wrought  a 
great  change  in  this  respect.  Doors  which  seemed  closed  and 
double-barred  in  former  days,  are  now  swinging  wide  open ; 
and  if  access  to  some  castes  and  classes  is  still  practically 
closed,  no  missionary  needs  longer  mourn  because  he  can  find 
no  one  willing  to  be  led  to  Christ. 
412 


OPEN  DOORS. 


413 


In  former  days,  uncultivated  fields  could  be  found  in 
abundance;  but  when  the  missionary  entered  his  field  of 
labor,  although  he  found  ample  room  so  far  as  mere  residence 
was  concerned,  he  failed  utterly  to  find  any  way  of  success- 
fully beginning  his  task.  As  stated  above,  there  was  no 
access  to  the  people.  They  were  hedged  about  by  so  many 
prejudices,  fears,  customs,  and  adverse  influences  of  all  kinds, 
that,  although  living  and  moving  among  them,  he  still  was 
made  to  feel  constantly  as  if  he  was  separated  from  them  by 
many  weary  leagues.  Now,  however,  not  only  are  ample 
fields  still  waiting  for  the  reaper,  but  within  each  field  im- 
mediate and  easy  access  is  found  to  multitudes  of  the  people. 
As  stated  in  other  chapters,  most  of  these  new  doors,  which  of 
late  have  been  opened  wide  to  all  missionary  workers,  are 
among  the  lower  castes;  but  if  there  is  any  disadvantage 
found  in  this  fact,  it  is  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the 
extraordinary  opportunities  found  among  these  people.  If  a 
report  were  to  reach  the  United  States  that  a  new  island  had 
been  discovered  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  with  500,000  people 
living  upon  it,  none  of  whom  had  yet  received  the  gospel, 
and  all  of  whom  were  sorely  oppressed  by  false  and  cruel 
social  and  religious  systems,  under  which  they  and  their  fore- 
fathers had  been  groaning  for  centuries,  all  the  churches  of 
America  would  at  once  rise  with  the  utmost  enthusiasm,  and 
determine  to  send  missionaries  to  these  neglected  people. 
But  it  is  precisely  a  discovery  of  this  kind  which  has  re- 
cently been  made  in  many  parts  of  our  field.  In  another 
chapter  I  have  spoken  of  the  discovery  made  some  years  ago 
that  missionary  labor  could  most  successfully  be  prosecuted 
upon  caste  lines.  Every  year  this  discovery  becomes  of  more 
practical  importance  to  us.  When  we  strike  a  particular 
caste,  for  instance,  and  find  the  people  accessible,  and  re- 
ceive a  few  hundred,  or  a  few  thousand  of  them  into  the 
Christian  church,  we  have  made  a  discovery  virtually  of  a 
great  island  in  the  social  world  of  India,  containing  fifty,  a 
hundred,  or  five  hundred  thousand  persons,  all  of  whom  are 


414  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA, 

without  the  gospel,  all  of  whom  have  long  been  groaning 
beneath  heavy  burdens  bound  upon  them  by  false  religious 
systems,  and  all  of  whom  are  more  or  less  interested  in  the 
world's  Saviour,  of  whom  they  have  dimly  heard.  I  have 
spoken  of  such  a  community  as  numbering  perhaps  five  hun- 
dred thousand,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  some  of  these  commu- 
nities far  exceed  that  number.  The  Chamars,  for  instance,  of 
the  Northwest  Provinces  and  Oudh  number  between  five  and 
six  millions,  and  every  year  many  of  them  are  embracing 
Christianity.*  Every  new  caste  or  class  of  the  people  among 
whom  we  gain  a  foot-hold  is  like  the  discovery  of  one  of 
these  great  islands;  and  we  are  now  not  only  successfully 
working  among  quite  a  number  of  the  lowest  castes,  but  have 
gained  a  very  encouraging  foot-hold  among  several  of  the 
higher  castes,  including  a  very  important  opening  among  the 
Rajputs,  who  rank  next  to  the  Brahmans.  We  have  also  in 
two  different  sections  of  the  country  found  an  open  door 
among  the  Mohammedans,  the  people  who  of  all  others  at 
first  seemed  most  effectually  shut  off  from  our  efforts. 

Thirty  years  ago  we  were  obliged  in  every  case  to  go  to 
the  people,  but  now  the  situation  is  changed  and  they  are 
coming  to  us.  In  those  days  it  was  difficult  to  find  people 
who  would  receive  us ;  now  it  is  impossible  to  find  mission- 
aries and  other  workers  enough  to  receive  the  eager  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  who  ask  us  to  baptize  them,  and  not 
only  admit  them  to  the  privileges  of  the  Christian  church, 
but  teach  them  and  their  children  to  read  the  word  of  God, 
and  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  knowledge  that  makes 
wise  unto  salvation.  In  some  parts  of  our  great  field,  it  is 
true,  we  are  still  obliged  to  seek  the  people;  but  in  other 
sections  the  rule  has  become  reversed,  and  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  before  many  years  the  extreme  pressure 
which  is  now  felt  by  our  laborers  in  North  and  Central  India 
will  extend  to  our  work  in  every  part  of  this  great  empire. 

*One  missionary  writes  that  he  expects  to  baptize  one  thousand 
of  them  before  the  close  of  the  present  year. 


OPEN  DOORS.  415 

NORTH  INDIA. 

It  is  within  the  bounds  of  the  North  India  Conference 
where  the  most  marked  progress  has  been  made  during  the 
past  four  years.  The  territory  embraced  within  the  ecclesias- 
tical boundaries  of  that  Conference  might  for  convenience  be 
divided  into  three  sections.  First  we  have  the  little  province 
of  Rohilkhand,  of  which  I  have  spoken  in  previous  chap- 
ters, with  its  population  in  round  numbers  of  about  five  mill- 
ions. This  one  little  field  is  in  every  respect  more  promising 
and  hopeful  than  it  has  ever  been  before.  There  is  no  rea- 
son to  anticipate  that  the  work  now  going  on  will  lose  its 
momentum  for  many  years  to  come,  and  experienced  mission- 
aries in  that  region  anticipate  that  for  years  it  will  be  per- 
fectly practicable,  if  the  Church  in  America  sustains  them,  to 
gather  in  at  least  ten  thousand  converts  every  year. 

To  the  south  of  Rohilkhand  is  the  ancient  kingdom  of 
Oudh,  with  an  area  of  24,246  square  miles,  and  a  population 
of  more  than  twelve  millions.  In  ancient  times  this  was  one 
of  the  most  important  parts  of  the  empire.  The  founder  of 
Buddhism  was  born  in  Eastern  Oudh,  and  Rama,  perhaps 
the  best  and  most  popular  character  in  Hindu  mythology, 
who  was  no  doubt  a  veritable  king  in  ancient  times,  was 
born  at  the  ancient  capital  of  the  kingdom,  now  known  as 
Ajodhya.  In  the  time  of  Warren  Hastings,  Oudh  was  a 
powerful  kingdom,  holding  only  a  nominal  allegiance  to  the 
Mogul  Emperor,  and  was  then  esteemed,  as  it  had  been  for 
ages  before,  one  of  the  richest  provinces  of  all  India.  It  is 
often  called  the  Garden  of  India,  but  is  less  productive  than 
Lower  Bengal.  It  is  a  little  behind  Rohilkhand  in  civiliza- 
tion and  in  the  intelligence  of  its  people.  Its  Mohammedan 
rulers  did  very  little  for  the  people,  but  squandered  its 
splendid  resources  in  building  palaces  for  themselves,  first  at 
Faizabad,  and  later  at  Lucknow.  The  city  of  Lucknow  was 
for  a  long  time  the  leading  inland  city  of  India,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  annexation  of  Oudh  by  the  Indian  Government 


416  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

it  was  supposed  to  have  a  population  of  at  least  half  a  million. 
A  very  large  proportion  of  these  were  mere  parasites,  either 
living  upon  the  direct  bounty  of  the  court,  or  attached  to 
hangers-on  of  various  kinds.  The  condition  of  the  country 
before  the  annexation  was  simply  deplorable.  The  reigning 
king  had  become  a  mere  puppet  in  the  hands  of  worthless 
men,  and  had  given  himself  up  to  a  life  of  voluptuous  pleas- 
ure, which  made  him  insensible  to  all  hopes  of  reward  or 
fear  of  punishment.  After  repeated  warnings  the  stroke  fell, 
in  the  year  1856,  when  Oudh  was  annexed  to  British  India, 
and  the  king  deposed  and  banished  to  a  palace  built  for  him 
on  the  banks  of  the  river  Hoogly,  below  Calcutta. 

Our  mission-work  in  Oudh  has  been  much  less  successful 
than  elsewhere,  partly  owing  to  causes  which  could  be  pointed 
out  in  the  policy  of  the  mission  itself,  but  chiefly  to  the  dif- 
ferent conditions  of  the  people.  One  of  our  Hindustani 
preachers  remarked  some  years  ago  that  it  was  more  difficult 
to  make  a  low-caste  man  a  Christian  in  Oudh  than  to  con- 
vert a  Brahman  in  Rohilkhand.  Such  was  the  popular  be- 
lief for  many  years  among  our  Hindustani  workers.  The 
people  of  Oudh  had  fewer  schools,  and  were  more  timid  and 
subject  to  prejudice  than  those  farther  north.  They  were 
also  much  more  subject  to  the  landlords  of  the  province,  and 
had  not  as  fully  escaped  from  the  state  of  semi-serfdom  in 
which  they  had  formerly  lived.  At  last,  however,  a  better 
day  seems  to  have  dawned  upon  Oudh.  During  the  year 
1891  over  a  thousand  converts  were  gathered  in  at  the  dif- 
ferent mission  stations  of  the  province,  and  the  workers 
begin  to  feel  that  a  success  equal,  if  not  greater,  than  that 
achieved  in  other  regions  may  soon  be  expected,  even  in 
Oudh.  If  the  work  can  be  sustained,  even  upon  its  present 
basis,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  it  will  soon  begin  to 
assume  proportions  somewhat  like  those  realized  in  Rohil- 
khand, and  yield  an  annual  harvest  of  not  less  than  ten  thou- 
sand souls.  Indeed,  we  ought  not  to  anticipate  anything 
below  these  figures.  The  workers  are  sure  to  experience 


OPEN  DOORS.  417 

grave  difficulties ;  but  they  have  already  struck  what  miners 
would  call  rich  "  leads,"  and  begin  to  discover  that  they  have 
only  to  follow  these  up  faithfully  in  order  to  achieve  the 
success  for  which  they  have  for  years  been  longing  and  pray- 
ing. In  some  parts  of  the  province — particularly  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  great  Gogra  river — the  prospects  are  es- 
pecially encouraging.  In  the  Gonda  district,  of  which  men- 
tion has  before  been  made,  where  the  Rev.  S.  Knowles  has 
labored  for  many  years,  many  interesting  openings  present 
themselves;  and  in  that  region  alone  it  is  probable  that  a 
field  equal  to  the  whole  of  Rohilkhand  may  yet  be  found  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  historic  cities  where  the  great- 
est of  the  epic  kings  of  the  Hindu  faith,  as  well  as  the 
founder  of  the  great  religious  system  known  as  Buddhism, 
were  born  and  reared. 

A  similar  estimate  might  be  made  for  the  country  called 
the  Doab — literally,  two  waters — that  is,  the  region  lying  be- 
tween the  Ganges  and  Jumna  rivers.  In  former  years, 
while  we  restricted  our  labors  to  the  region  east  of  the 
Gauges,  we  received  frequent  intimations  that  open  doors 
awaited  us  west  of  the  river,  among  relatives  of  our  converts. 
But  in  those  days  it  was  thought  best  for  each  church  or 
society  to  confine  its  labors  within  a  given  field,  and  for  some 
time  little  heed  was  given  to  the  calls  from  that  section.  It 
was  impossible,  however,  to  persist  in  such  a  policy  very 
long.  Not  only  did  some  of  our  converts  remove  to  the 
western  side  of  the  river,  but  from  time  to  time  parties  living 
over  there  would  visit  their  Christian  relatives  in  Rohil- 
khand,  and  while  among  them  be  converted,  and  return  to 
their  former  homes  as  Christians.  In  this  way  a  scattered 
membership  began  to  be  reported  in  the  annual  statistics, 
some  years  before  it  was  formally  resolved  to  take  up  work 
on  that  side  of  the  river.  At  last,  however,  the  repeated  and 
urgent  calls  from  that  section  of  country  met  with  a  re- 
sponse. At  first  only  Hindustani  preachers  were  sent  among 
the  people;  but  finally,  as  the  work  assumed  an  organized 

27 


418  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

form,  it  was  determined  to  occupy  the  country  in  consider- 
able force.  Cawnpore  had  become  one  of  our  stations  in  the 
south,  and  Mathra  and  Agra,  important  cities,  were  occupied 
farther  north  and  west.  Finally,  at  the  Annual  Conference 
of  January,  1889,  two  presiding  elders'  districts  were  formed 
on  that  side  of  the  river — one  with  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Scott, 
Ph.  D.,  as  presiding  elder,  and  the  other  with  the  Rev.  Hasan 
Raza  Khan,  a  convert  from  Mohammedanism,  and  a  man  of 
much  energy  and  zeal,  who  had  practically  carved  out  the 
district  over  which  he  now  presides.  At  the  present  time 
this  section  of  our  work  is  the  most  promising  we  have  in 
India.  Presiding  Elder  Hasan  Raza  Khan  has  repeatedly 
written  to  me  and  others  that,  in  addition  to  the  many  con- 
verts whom  he  has  received  during  the  present  year,  he  could 
baptize  three  or  four  thousand  others  if  provided  with  workers 
to  take  charge  of  them  after  baptism.  Dr.  Scott  also  reports 
almost  equally  promising  fields  in  parts  of  his  work.  The 
station  of  Ajmere,  far  to  the  west  of  the  Doab,  and  belong- 
ing to  Central  India,  has  been  attached  to  this  district,  be- 
cause nearer  to  its  head-quarters  than  to  any  other  part  of 
our  work.  The  Rev.  James  Lyon,  missionary  at  Ajmere, 
has  baptized  large  numbers  of  converts  during  the  present 
year.  At  many  points  nearer  to  Mathra  and  Agra  a  similar 
work  has  commenced,  and,  taking  this  district  as  a  represent- 
ative portion  of  the  North  India  Conference,  I  have  no  hes- 
itation in  saying  that  if  the  work  could  only  be  sustained,  it 
also  would  yield  permanently  a  harvest  of  perhaps  ten  thou- 
sand souls  annually. 

Just  here  I  might  pause  to  explain  a  peculiarity  con- 
nected with  the  expansion  of  our  work.  Friends  in  America 
constantly  warn  us,  and  sometimes  even  chide  us  for  our 
headlong  precipitancy  in  extending  a  work  which  already  has 
outgrown  our  working  force.  We  are  told  to  be  more  delib- 
erate, and  not  to  advance  a  single  inch  beyond  the  lines 
which  have  been  already  marked  out  for  us.  Persons  who 
thus  counsel  us  forget  that  such  advice  is  practically  impos- 


OPEN  DOORS.  419 

sible  while  we  are  working  under  our  Methodist  system.  In 
an  early  chapter  of  this  book,  in  speaking  of  the  apparent 
necessity  which  was  laid  upon  the  first  English  leaders  to 
found  an  empire  in  India,  I  pointed  out  the  fact  that  all 
Englishmen  had  from  childhood  been  familiar  with  what 
might  be  called  an  organizing  instinct  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
character.  Put  down  men  of  this  race  in  any  part  of  the 
world,  and  they  will  proceed  with  the  work  of  organization 
as  naturally  as  with  that  of  tilling  the  soil.  They  have  been 
trained  to  it,  and  recognize  its  necessity  at  once.  A  similar 
remark  will  apply  to  men  who  have  been  trained  in  the 
school  of  active  Methodism.  The  idea  of  organizing  and  ex- 
tending their  work  becomes  to  them  almost  an  instinct. 
Take,  for  instance,  a  young  man  to  whom  I  might  refer, 
now  engaged  in  our  work  in  another  part  of  the  country. 
Not  long  since  I  was  sketching  on  a  sheet  of  paper  the  cir- 
cuit which  had  been  given  him.  It  contained  four  or  five 
appointments.  As  I  went  on  sketching  his  circuit,  a  friend 
who  was  looking  at  the  improvised  map,  remarked:  "That 
young  man  is  really  carving  out  a  presiding  elder's  district. 
Each  appointment  on  his  circuit  is  becoming  the  center  of 
another  circuit."  "Yes,"  I  replied,  "it  becomes  perfectly 
natural  for  him  to  go  on  and  build  upon  the  model  furnished 
to  him.  His  circuit  will  be  a  presiding  elder's  district  before 
many  years,  if  it  continues  to  expand  as  it  is  now  doing." 

This  is  precisely  what  has  happened  in  the  case  of  our 
brother,  Hasan  Raza  Khan.  He  was  given  a  certain  circuit 
in  the  Doab,  and  at  once  began  to  extend  his  work.  Each 
one  of  his  little  appointments  became  the  center  of  a  group 
of  villages  in  which  Christian  classes  were  formed,  and  within 
a  very  short  time  it  began  to  be  observed  that  his  circuit 
was  taking  the  shape  of  a  presiding  elder's  district.  When 
he  had  carved  out  the  district,  it  was  felt  by  every  one 
that  he  was  justly  entitled  to  preside  over  it,  and  thus  far 
the  experiment  tried  in  his  case  has  proved  more  than  suc- 
cessful. 


•120  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

In  Rohilkhand,  our  third  Indian  presiding  elder  has  won 
his  position  in  the  same  way.  I  say  Indian,  although  the 
brother  in  question  is  a  Jew  by  race — the  Rev.  Abraham 
Solomon.  This  brother  also  had  a  circuit  which  he  held  for 
a  number  of  years,  and,  having  achieved  unusual  success  in 
winning  converts,  there  grew  up  around  him  in  the  process 
of  time  a  group  of  appointments,  each  of  which  became  of 
sufficient  importance  to  become  the  head  of  a  circuit ;  and 
when  this  zealous  worker  had  thus  furnished  the  material  for 
making  a  new  presiding  elder's  district,  it  seemed  both  nat- 
ural and  just  that  he  should  assume  charge  of  it.  He  also 
is  doing  well,  and  perhaps  furnishing  one  of  the  few  interest- 
ing illustrations  we  now  have  of  the  future  expansion  of  our 
work  among  the  millions  of  this  great  empire. 

These  three  men  will  illustrate  a  tendency  which  is  com- 
mon to  our  work  everywhere  in  India.  That  ecclesiastical 
system  which  is  popularly  called  Methodism  has  now  been 
in  operation  more  than  a  hundred  years,  and  those  who  have 
grown  up  and  been  trained  according  to  its  maxims  can 
never  stand  still  in  any  part  of  the  earth,  unless  they  bid 
farewell  to  success  in  their  work.  If  they  build  at  all,  they 
must  be  expected  to  build  according  to  the  pattern  showed  to 
them  in  the  Methodist  mount  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago. 
They  are  not  Congregationalists,  or  even  Presbyterians,  and 
their  system,  if  worked  in  its  integrity,  in  the  very  nature  of 
the  case  will  impel,  or  propel,  them  forward,  and  they  will  go 
on  organizing,  even  as  their  fathers  did  before  them,  for  all 
the  years  to  come.  It  is  utterly  useless  for  parties  in  Amer- 
ica to  sit  down  in  their  quiet  homes  and  form  plans  for  work- 
ers on  the  other  side  of  the  globe,  w7hich  embrace  so  impos- 
sible a  condition  as  that  of  bodies  moving  and  standing  still 
at  the  same  time.  Methodism  was  never  intended  to  illus- 
trate such  an  impossible  policy.  It  must  move  forward,  or 
else  suffer  spiritual  paralysis.  We  may  as  well  accept  the 
conditions  at  once,  and  ought  to  feel  no  surprise  when  we 
discover  that  a  wonderful  system  which  has  covered  the 


OPEN  DOORS.  421 

whole  United  States  and,  indeed,  all  the  British  colonies, 
with  a  net-work  of  evangelizing  agencies,  continues  to  fulfill 
its  mission  when  applied  to  so  peculiar  a  people  as  are  found 
in  the  Empire  of  India. 

In  speaking  of  the  North  India  Conference,  I  have  omit- 
ted mention  of  the  splendid  mountain  district  included  within 
its  boundaries.  Here,  also,  is  a  hopeful  field,  extending 
from  the  borders  of  Nepal  on  the  east,  to  the  head- waters  of 
the  Ganges  on  the  west.  Owing  to  an  unfortunate  but  tem- 
porary connection  of  a  part  of  North  India  with  the  Bengal 
Conference,  the  boundary-line  on  the  west  shuts  off  a  part 
of  North  India,  which  would  otherwise  include  the  impor- 
tant station  of  Mussoorie,  and  the  native  state  of  Tiri.  Add 
these  to  the  three  sections  of  the  Conference  spoken  of  above, 
and  we  have  a  region  within  which  doors  stand  wide  open 
to  four  or  five  important  castes,  with  every  human  probability 
that  the  number  will  be  increased  almost  with  each  return- 
ing year.  We  rejoice  greatly  at  the  present  time  over  the 
probable  baptism  of  ten  thousand  converts  of  all  ages  during 
the  present  year.  I  see  no  reason  why  the  number  might 
not  be  increased  to  fifteen  thousand  a  year,  and  not  allowed 
to  fall  below  that  figure  for  the  next  fifty  years.  In  fact,  it 
is  impossible  for  any  one  in  America  to  realize  what  is  meant 
by  an  open  door  among  a  people  who  are  counted  by  the 
million,  and  who  are  often  accustomed  to  move  in  masses. 
The  remark  is  often  made  among  us  that  we  fear,  not  that 
we  shall  fail  to  win  converts,  but  that  they  may  come  more 
rapidly  than  we  can  care  for  them.  But  if  we  had  nothing 
else  in  India  at  all ;  if  we  could  possibly  do  so,  and  were  to 
return  to  the  narrow  boundaries  of  our  former  single  mis- 
sion— that  of  North  India — we  might  soon  expect  to  have  a 
great  Christian  church  numbering  not  less  than  a  hundred  thou- 
sand members,  and  advancing  with  steady  step — if  not,  indeed, 
by  leaps  and  bounds — toward  the  final  consummation  of  our 
hopes,  the  conversion  of  all  these  people  to  Christ.  Only 
those  who  have  known  our  day  of  small  things  can  compre- 


422  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

hend  what  such  a  prospect  means.  We  often  grieve  that  our 
dear  friends  in  America  seem  unable  to  appreciate  such  a 
golden  opportunity.  Nothing  like  it  has  ever  before  been 
presented  to  any  Christian  church,  and  if  our  own  people  re- 
fuse to  discern  the  signs  of  the  times  as  God  reveals  them ;  if 
they  shrink  from  an  opportunity  which  angels  would  eagerly 
grasp;  if  they  content  themselves  with  a  mere  nominal  sup- 
port of  a  work  which  to  them  has  little  more  meaning  than 
that  of  a  conventional  religious  term,  they  will  do  so  at 
the  peril  of  their  own  best  interests,  and  perhaps  earn  the  re- 
proach of  generations  yet  unborn. 

I  have  spoken  of  these  open  doors  in  one  part  of  North 
India.  In  a  few  brief  chapters  I  shall  now  speak  of  other 
fields,  in  other  parts  of  the  great  empire,  to  which  God  has 
called  us,  and,  if  possible,  give  the  reader  a  glimpse,  in  out- 
line merely,  of  the  many  doors  which  God  is  setting  before 
us,  east,  west,  north,  and  south,  any  one  of  which  affords 
more  signs  of  promise  than  wTere  found  in  all  parts  of  India 
and  the  East  when  I  entered  upon  this  great  work  thirty-two 
years  ago. 

P.  S. — The  above  was  written  in  August,  1891.  A  brief 
year  has  passed,  and  the  march  of  events  has  thrown  much 
light  upon  some  of  the  estimates  then  made.  In  three  places 
I  have  changed  the  estimate  of  annual  increase  from  five 
thousand  to  ten  thousand.  One  year  ago  we  ventured  to 
hope  for  fifteen  thousand  baptisms  from  heathenism  during 
the  year;  but  the  actual  number  was  over  nineteen  thou- 
sand. My  estimate  of  fifteen  thousand  converts  every  year 
was  then  considered  a  sanguine,  if  not  extravagant,  calcula- 
tion ;  but  now  few,  if  any,  of  our  missionaries  would  fix  on 
a  lower  number.  I  have  not  made  an  estimate  of  probable 
success  during  the  past  four  years,  which  did  not  prove  too 
low,  instead  of  too  high,  when  tested  by  the  event. 


Chapter   XXXII. 

THE  PANJAB  AND  WESTERN  INDIA. 

THE  Panjab — literally  five  rivers — is  the  name  given  to 
the  large  and  important  province  which  lies  in  the  ex- 
treme northwestern  part  of  India.  It  contains  about  142,000 
square  miles,  and  a  population  in  round  numbers  of  25,000,- 
000.  Its  Government  is  administered  by  a  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor,  but  a  number  of  feudatory  States  are  included  within 
its  boundaries.  The  western  part  of  the  Panjab  is  the  region 
which  was  conquered  by  Alexander  the  Great  when  he  invaded 
India.  No  event  in  the  career  of  that  great  conqueror  added 
more  to  his  fame  than  his  invasion  of  the  mysterious  realm, 
at  that  time  hardly  known,  which  lay  east  of  the  Indus;  but, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  seems  to  have  been  a  very  unimpor- 
tant conquest.  He  was  not  able  to  penetrate  as  far  as  the 
Jumna,  much  less  to  the  Ganges,  and  after  a  few  unimpor- 
tant victories  was  obliged  to  retrace  his  steps. 

The  Panjab  is  famous  as  the  home  of  the  Sikhs,  one  of 
the  most  recent  races  of  India,  and  one  of  the  finest  races 
which  has  ever  appeared  on  the  stage  of  Indian  history.  The 
rise  and  progress  of  these  people,  as  well  as  the  character  of 
their  religion,  would  form  an  interesting  subject,  but  would 
require  more  space  than  can  be  afforded  in  a  book  of  this 
character.  Among  all  the  enemies  whom  the  English  have 
conquered  in  India,  the  Sikhs  easily  take  the  foremost  place. 
Physically  and  mentally  they  are  a  fine  race,  and,  occupying 
as  they  do  a  ground  midway  between  Mohammedanism  and 
Hinduism,  may  yet  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  Christian- 
ization  of  the  country. 

While  the  Sikhs  occupy  the  most  prominent  place  in  the 

425 


426  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Panjab,  both  the  Hindus  and  the  Mohammedans  are  also  very 
numerous.  As  a  mission-field  this  part  of  India  is  perhaps 
not  quite  as  ripe  as  some  regions  which  have  been  longer 
under  Christian  influence,  and  yet  it  is  altogether  probable 
that  before  many  years  the  Panjab  will  take  high  rank  among 
the  mission-fields  of  the  empire.  The  American  Presbyte- 
rians were  the  first  to  enter  the  province ;  but  were  followed  in 
force  by  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  at  a  later  day 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  United  Presbyterians  of  America, 
the  Baptists,  and  Methodists,  and  perhaps  one  or  two  others 
have  joined  in  the  work.  Both  the  Presbyterians  and  Church 
missionaries  occupy  important  stations.  The  latter  have 
adopted  the  policy  of  posting  themselves  on  the  frontier, 
where  they  can  not  only  influence  the  people  of  the  Panjab, 
but  throw  rays  of  light  far  into  the  outer  darkness  of  Cen- 
tral Asia. 

We  were  led  into  the  Panjab  in  our  usual  way  by  begin- 
ning to  preach  to  the  English-speaking  people  of  Lahore. 
Our  success  up  to  the  present  has  not  been  very  great  in  that 
city.  In  fact,  we  have  encountered  many  discouragements, 
and  might  possibly  have  withdrawn  had  that  been  the  only 
point  occupied  by  us  in  that  particular  kind  of  work.  There, 
however,  as  elsewhere,  we  soon  began  to  do  a  little  among  the 
natives,  and,  having  once  commenced,  we  always  feel  com- 
mitted to  go  forward  rather  than  retreat.  In  1889  we  opened 
a  mission  at  the  capital  of  the  native  State  of  Patiala,  by  send- 
ing a  Hindustani  ordained  preacher  to  occupy  the  place. 
This  is  an  important  State,  and  our  Hindustani  brother*  has 
met  with  a  measure  of  success  which  is  very  encouraging. 
He  has  already  won  more  converts  than  all  of  our  mission- 
aries in  India  did  during  the  first  three  years  of  our  mission 
history.  The  census  reports  more  than  a  million  people 
in  the  Panjab  belonging  to  the  out-caste  tribe  known  as 
Chuhras.  It  is  among  these  people  that  our  work  is  chiefly 

*  This  dear  brother,  the  Rev.  Antone  Dutt,  has  since  been  called 
to  his  reward.  He  died  at  Patiala,  June  15,  1892, 


THE  PANJAB  AND  WESTERN  INDIA.  427 

carried  on  at  present,  and  on  the  eastern  border  of  the  prov- 
ince our  missionaries  have  baptized  many  hundreds  of  them 
in  the  last  two  or  three  years.  We  are  now  fully  com- 
mitted to  this  work,  and  if  we  had  no  other  interest  in  India 
we  could  employ  all  our  forces  in  pushing  a  great  campaign 
among  them,  with  the  almost  certain  prospect  of  achieving  a 
very  large  measure  of  success. 

When  we  speak  of  Western  India  every  one  in  the  East 
would  understand  the  reference  to  be  to  Bombay  and  the 
country  lying  adjacent  to  that  great  sea-port.  The  city  of 
Bombay  is  the  second  city  in  the  British  Empire,  and  in  most 
respects  is  eminently  worthy  of  the  position  which  it  has 
gained.  As  the  gateway  through  which  Europe  enters  India, 
the  city  will  no  doubt  retain  this  prominence,  at  least  for 
many  long  years  to  come.  Its  commercial  position  is  one  of 
the  best ;  its  harbor  equal  to  all  possible  demands  which  the 
ships  of  the  world  can  make  upon  it;  while  its  great  lines 
of  railway,  reaching  north,  east,  and  south,  serve  as  so  many 
arms  with  which  to  gather  in  the  produce  of  the  great 
empire. 

The  city  of  Bombay  is  the  seat  of  government  of  what 
used  to  be,  and  is  still,  popularly  called  the  Bombay  Presi- 
dency. The  government  is  administered  by  a  Governor  in- 
stead of  a  Lieutenant-Governor.  This  official  ranks  a  little 
higher  than  the  ruler  of  Bengal,  for  instance,  although  he 
has  less  than  one-third  as  many  subjects  under  his  adminis- 
tration. The  Province  of  Sindh,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Indus, 
is  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Governor  of  Bombay,  and,  in- 
cluding this  district,  the  total  population  is  about  28,000,000, 
living  on  an  area  of  206,000  square  miles.  This  estimate, 
however,  includes  the  important  native  State  of  Baroda,  and 
a  large  number  of  petty  States,  most  of  them,  however,  almost 
directly  subordinate  to  the  Bombay  Government. 

The  province  of  Sindh  is  made  up  almost  exclusively  by 
the  delta  of  the  great  river  Indus.  It  is  a  small  Egypt, 
and  very  much  more  like  the  original  Egypt  than  Bengal, 


428  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

i 
which  is  likened   to  it   in   another  chapter.      It  comprises 

an  area  of  54,000  square  miles,  with  a  population  of  about 
3,000,000.  The  surrounding  region  is  for  the  most  part 
an  arid  desert,  and  the  little  province  is  as  dependent  upon 
the  Indus  as  Egypt  is  upon  the  Nile.  The  people  of  Sind 
have  a  language  of  their  own,  affiliated  to  the  ancient  San- 
skrit, and  forming  one  of  the  seven  branches  which  are  pop- 
ularly said  to  have  sprung  from  the  roots  of  that  ancient 
tongue.  We  were  led  to  Karachi,  the  capital  of  the  province 
and  one  of  the  rising  sea-ports  of  the  empire,  long  years  ago, 
by  a  local  preacher,  who  began  to  hold  meetings  in  that  city 
among  the  English-speaking  people,  chiefly  soldiers,  to  whom 
he  could  gain  access.  A  large  number  were  converted,  and 
at  their  request  one  of  our  missionaries  visited  the  place  and 
formally  organized  them  into  a  Methodist  church.  The  re- 
moteness of  the  city  has  always  been  a  hindrance  to  our 
work.  It  is  difficult  to  give  the  little  church  and  mission 
which  has  grown  .up  in  that  place  the  supervision  which  it 
requires.  During  the  present  year  an  advance  post  has  been 
established  in  the  city  of  Quetta,  a  military  station  opened  in 
Beluchistan  and  connected  with  Karachi  by  railway.  Our 
friends  in  both  Karachi  and  Quetta  are  eager,  and  almost 
clamorous,  for  a  more  vigorous  support  than  we  have  here- 
tofore been  able  to  give  them.  It  will  probably  be  found 
best  for  us  to  have  either  a  presiding  elder's  district  for- 
mally organized  in  that  region,  or  the  Province  of  Sindh  set 
apart  as  a  mission,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  Korea  or 
Bulgaria. 

North  of  Bombay  we  find  the  home  of  the  Gujarati  peo- 
ple, one  of  the  leading  Hindu  races.  They  have  a  language 
and  literature  of  their  own,  and  are  found  in  great  force  in 
the  city  of  Bombay  itself,  where  they  divide  with  the 
Marathas  the  chief  interests  of  the  city.  The  number  of 
Gujarati  people  is  variously  estimated,  but  does  not  probably 
fall  below  10,000,000.  More  than  fifteen  years  ago  our 
work  became  rooted  in  the  city  of  Baroda,  in  Gujarat, 


THE  PANJAB  AND   WESTERN  INDIA.  429 

through  a  small  community  of  English-speaking  persons. 
Soon  after,  a  number  of  natives  were  converted  and  bap- 
tized, but  owing  to  the  inexperience  of  our  missionaries  at 
that  early  day,  we  had  no  one  who  understood  such  work  to 
put  in  charge,  and  the  promising  opening  which  was  then 
presented  to  us  came  to  naught.  We  can  now  see  clearly, 
that  had  we  followed  the  indication  which  God  then  gave  us, 
a  great  work  might  have, been  accomplished.  More  recently 
we  have  gained  access  to  the  Gujarati  people  through  our 
missionaries  in  Bombay;  and  as  many  of  these  people  return 
to  their  villages  in  Gujarat,  they  carry  with  them  the  gospel 
which  they  have  received.  We  now  have  an  organized 
Gujarati  church  in  Bombay,  and  another  in  Baroda,  and  are 
planning  to  extend  our  work  in  that  interesting  province  as 
rapidly  as  possible.  Gujarat  resembles  North  India  more 
than  any  other  region  beyond  the  Gangetic  plain.  The 
lower  castes  are  fully  as  accessible  as  any  of  the  castes  or 
tribes  which  we  find  in  North  India,  and  we  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  a  work  carried  on  among  them  on  the 
same  lines  which  we  follow  in  North  India,  would  produce 
the  same  results. 

Many  readers  are  already  familiar  with  the  history  of  our 
work  in  Bombay.  It  was  here  that  Bishop  Taylor  made  his 
first  independent  stand  in  the  empire.  It  was  here  that  he 
was  joined  by  the  saintly  and  venerable  George  Bowen,  a 
man  whose  praise  was  in  all  the  churches  of  the  East,  and 
who  brought  with  him  a  commanding  influence  in  the  city  of 
Bombay  itself.  It  was  from  this  point  that  our  work  ex- 
tended itself  to  the  great  city  of  Poona,  the  ancient  capital  of 
the  Maratha  Empire,  and  as  far  southward  as  the  city  of 
Hyderabad,  the  capital  of  the  great  Mohammedan  State  of 
that  name.  When  Mr.  Bowen  united  with  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  he  was  an  independent  Presbyterian  mis- 
sionary, but  had  been  sent  to  India  in  the  first  place  by  the 
American  Board.  He  of  course  continued  the  work  which  he 
was  doing,  and  in  this  way  it  may  be  said  that  we  have  always 


430  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

had  a  vernacular  work  in  Bombay.  This  work  was  at  first 
conducted  wholly  in  the  Marathi  language.  The  Marathi  is 
spoken  by  perhaps  20,000,000  people.  As  remarked  else- 
where, it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  with  accuracy  the  number 
of  people  who  speak  any  particular  tongue,  as  the  census  re- 
ports must,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  always  be  more  or  less 
imperfect.  Like  the  Hindustani,  the  Marathi  overflows  into 
adjoining  provinces  and  districts.  ,  The  most  careful  estimate 
which  I  have  been  able  to  find,  based  on  figures  taken  from 
the  census  of  1881,  places  the  number  of  people  using  the 
Marathi  tongue  at  19,000,000.  The  increase  during  the  time 
since  then  would  no  doubt  bring  the  number  up  to  20,000,000. 
We  have  three  churches  in  Bombay,  and  also  a  large 
building  for  work  among  the  seamen.  Our  people,  however, 
have  found  the  struggle  for  existence  in  Bombay  in  some  re- 
spects a  hard  one.  The  English-speaking  population  is 
smaller  than  in  Calcutta,  or  even  Madras;  and,  while  wholly 
dependent  upon  their  own  resources,  our  members,  although 
devoted  and  faithful  in  a  high  degree,  have  heavy  burdens  to 
carry.  We  need  to  strengthen  our  forces  in  the  city  at  once 
and  very  materially.  We  need  especially,  as  also  in  Calcutta, 
to  organize  a  strong  working  force  among  the  native  popula- 
tion. In  the  great  city  of  Poona,  which  lies  to  the  southeast 
of  Bombay,  at  the  edge  of  the  great  table-land  known  as  the 
Deccan,  we  have  a  vigorous  English  church  and  school  for 
European  boys  and  girls,  and  a  well-organized  and  vigorous 
mission  for  the  Maratha  people.  We  also  occupy  two  or  three 
smaller  stations  in  Marathi-speaking  districts.  Very  recently 
quite  a  number  of  converts  have  been  baptized  in  the  vicinity 
of  Bombay,  and  the  few  attempts  which  have  been  made  to 
reach  the  lower  castes,  of  whom  there  are  large  numbers,  have 
met  with  a  measure  of  success,  which  leaves  no  doubt  in  my 
mind  that  all  we  need  in  order  to  reproduce  the  success  we 
have  achieved  in  Northern  India,  is  to  apply  the  same  meth- 
ods and  a  similar  working  force.  In  other  words,  I  mean 
that  if  we  could  even  moderately  strengthen  our  work  in 


THE  PANJAB  AND  WESTERN  INDIA.  433 

the  three  provinces — the  Panjab,  Gujarat,  and  the  Maratha 
country — it  would  be  the  most  reasonable  thing  in  the  world 
for  us  to  anticipate  an  ingathering  of  at  least  five  thousand 
souls  annually  in  each  district;  that  is,  we  ought  to  anticipate 
such  a  measure  of  success  at  an  early  day.  Looking  to  the 
years  beyond,  of  course  such  figures  would  be  altogether  out 
of  place.  Here  again  our  friends  in  America  can  see  three 
wide-open  doors  clearly  marked  and  easy  of  access.  Each  of 
these  doors  admits  us  not  so  much  to  a  district  as  to  an  empire. 
If  our  church  had  no  other  calls  in  any  part  of  the  world,  and 
were  to  throw  her  whole  strength  into  any  one  of  these  three 
fields,  she  would  find  enough,  and  much  more  than  enough, 
to  test  all  her  energies  and  to  call  forth  all  her  resources. 
But  here,  as  elsewhere,  we  do  not  propose  to  accomplish 
everything  in  a  day.  We  only  ask  to  be  strengthened  so  as 
to  make  an  advance,  and  create  on  the  ground  the  resources 
by  which  future  and  greater  campaigns  shall  be  sustained. 

Christianity  should  especially  be  strengthened  in  every 
possible  way,  and  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  in  the  great 
city  of  Bombay.  The  power  that  holds  Bombay  must  neces- 
sarily hold  all  Western  India.  This  is  as  true  of  the  religious 
as  of  the  political  situation.  While  Calcutta  has  thus  far 
taken  a  leading  position  intellectually,  and  will  probably  hold 
it  for  many  years  to  come,  yet  Bombay,  so  far  as  Western 
India  is  concerned,  will,  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  occupy  a 
more  commanding  position.  As  one  branch  of  our  common 
Master's  service,  the  Methodists  must  bear  this  fact  in  mind 
in  all  their  plans  for  Western  India.  In  order  to  sustain 
their  work  elsewhere  in  that  region  they  must  occupy  Bom- 
bay in  force.  They  should  at  once  form  plans  on  the  broad- 
est basis,  and  provide  schools,  churches,  and  evangelizing 
igencies  of  every  possible  kind.  Their  action,  too,  should  be 
not  only  vigorous  but  prompt.  No  time  is  to  be  lost  in  seiz- 
ing the  present  opportunity.  Had  we  acted  more  promptly 
in  the  past,  our  position  would  have  been  greatly  strengthened 
in  Bombay  and  all  Western  India  to-day. 

28 


Cipher   XXXIII. 

BENGAL. 

THE  name  Bengal  was  formerly  applied  to  all  the  vast 
region  comprised  in  eastern,  northern,  and  north- 
western India,  which  was  then  known  as  the  Bengal  Presi- 
dency. At  the  present  time,  however,  it  is  used  in  a  much 
more  restricted  sense,  being  applied  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
local  government  of  that  name,  and  forming  one  of  the  twelve 
subordinate  divisions  which  are  comprised  in  British  India. 
It  is  by  far  the  most  important  of  these  local  governments, 
containing,  as  it  does,  about  one-third  of  the  total  population 
of  the  empire,  and  also  yielding  about  one-third  of  the  public 
revenue.  It  is  ruled  by  a  Lieutenant-Governor,  and  is  sub- 
divided into  four  great  provinces,  known  as  Bengal  proper, 
Behar,  Orissa,  and  Chota  Nagpore.  The  last  named  of 
these  provinces  is  composed  chiefly  of  a  hilly  tract  to  the 
westward  of  Calcutta,  and  inhabited  for  the  most  part  by 
aboriginal  tribes.  Orissa  is  a  comparatively  small  province 
on  the  sea-coast,  southeast  of  Calcutta,  and  chiefly  famous  as 
the  seat  of  the  well-known  temple  of  Jagannath.  The  people 
of  Chota  Nagpore,  for  the  most  part,  speak  the  Hindi  lan- 
guage ;  but  the  inhabitants  of  Orissa,  known  as  the  Ooriyas, 
have  a  language  of  their  own,  somewhat  akin  to  the  Bengali. 
Bengal  proper  is  the  Egypt  of  India,  the  country  having 
been  built  up  by  the  alluvial  deposits  of  the  Ganges  and 
Brahmaputra  Rivers.  These  two  mighty  streams  unite  their 
two  deltas  before  reaching  the  sea,  and  in  past  ages  have 
built  up  one  of  the  largest  and  richest  alluvial  plains  to  be 
found  anywhere  in  the  world.  Bengal  proper  has  an  area  of 
about  70,000  square  miles,  and  contains  a  population  of 
434 


BENGAL.  435 

about  37,000,000.  The  country  is  exceedingly  rich,  but  the 
people  for  the  most  part,  like  the  masses  of  India  generally, 
live  in  great  poverty.  Their  chief  food  is  rice,  although 
other  grains  are  grown  to  some  extent  in  the  more  northern 
parts  of  the  country.  For  many  centuries  past  Bengal  has 
been  known  as  one  of  the  richest  regions  in  the  East.  Its 
commerce,  important  even  before  the  European  era,  has  had 
an  immense  development,  and  has  been  the  means  of  build- 
ing up  Calcutta  from  a  miserable  village  of  mud  huts,  into 
one  of  the  largest  and  most  important  cities  in  the  British 
Empire. 

The  Bengali  people  number  about  40,000,000,  or  at  least 
about  that  number  speak  the  Bengali  language.  Some  of 
these,  it  will  be  seen,  live  beyond  the  limits  of  the  province, 
and  are  included,  for  the  most  part,  in  Behar,  although  col- 
onies of  Bengalis  have  become  settled  in  many  of  the  cities 
of  North  India.  The  largest  of  these  is  at  Benares,  where 
pious  Hindus  from  Bengal  have  been  in  the  habit  of  going 
in  their  more  advanced  years,  that  they  might  die  within  the 
precincts  of  that  holy  place.  The  sanctity  of  the  city  and 
other  inducements  have  drawn  together  a  very  considerable 
colony,  which  has  become  permanently  established  at  this 
point.  The  Bengalis  have  a  very  distinctly  marked  physi- 
ognomy, and  a  character  differing  in  several  respects  from 
that  of  all  other  Indians,  so  that  they  are  as  easily  recognized, 
and  perhaps  more  generally  known  throughout  India  than 
any  other  race  of  the  empire.  They  have  also  secured  more 
Attention  in  England  than  any  other  Indians,  chiefly  owing 
to  the  fact  that  those  who  apply  themselves  to  the  effort, 
succeed  in  mastering  the  English  language  more  perfectly 
than  is  common  in  the  East,  and  use  both  tongue  and  pen 
with  an  ease  and  skill  which  commend  them  to  the  favorable 
notice  of  strangers.  I  am  bound  to  say,  however,  that  they 
are  not  popular,  either  among  Europeans  or  their  Indian 
brethren  of  other  races.  They  are  popularly  accused  of  a 
frant  of  courage,  and  are  never  found  enlisted  among  the 


436  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

sepoys  of  the  Indian  army.  They  are  of  an  aggressive  spirit, 
fond  of  criticising  the  Government  of  the  day,  and,  both  by 
their  superior  mental  ability  and  success  in  seeking  their  per- 
sonal promotion,  have  created  a  feeling  among  their  country- 
men of  other  races  which  is  perhaps  tinged  more  or  less  by 
popular  jealousy.  It  must  be  conceded,  however,  even  by 
their  most  severe  critics,  that  they  are,  as  a  race,  endowed 
with  minds  of  a  high  order,  and  capable  of  easy  and  success- 
ful cultivation.  They  learn  rapidly  and  eagerly.  The  schools 
of  Calcutta  are  a  standing  evidence  of  their  eagerness  to  se- 
cure a  good  practical  education.  The  student  -population  of 
the  city  is  very  large,  numbering  not  less  than  15,000  youths. 
Thousands  of  these  have  come  from  different  parts  of  the 
province,  and  push  their  way  with  indomitable  perseverance 
until  they  pass  the  full  university  course,  and  return  home 
with  the  degree  of  Bachelor  or  Master  of  Arts.  I  have  my- 
self seen  1,400  students  present  in  the  General  Assembly's 
Institution,  a  missionary  college  founded  by  Dr.  Duff  on  his 
first  arrival  in  India,  before  the  separation  of  the  Free  Church 
from  the  General  Assembly.  This  is  the  largest  of  the  Cal- 
cutta colleges;  but  another  has  over  1,200  students,  and  two 
or  three  others  about  1,000  each.  The  number  of  smaller 
institutions  is  very  large,  and  although  well  acquainted  with 
the  city,  I  can  not  attempt  to  give  even  a  list  of  them. 

The  Bengali  people  are  evidently  destined  to  exert  a 
most  important  influence  upon  the  empire  generally.  I 
ought  to  say  frankly  that  it  is  considered  the  correct  thing  in 
certain  circles  in  India  to  speak  of  them  contemptuously,  to 
ridicule  their  pretensions,  and  scout  at  the  very  idea  of  their 
ever  exerting  a  wide  or  permanent  influence  among  their 
countrymen.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  that  influence  is 
already  felt,  and  can  not  be  overlooked.  They  have  had  for 
years  past  some  able  leaders,  and  wherever  they  have  gone  in 
the  little  colonies  formed  by  them  throughout  Upper  India, 
they  have  taken  prominent  places  in  the  community.  I  have 
heard  some  experienced  missionaries  express  the  opinion  that 


BENGAL. 


437 


in  the  fullness  of  time  they  will  become  most  successful  mis- 
sionaries of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  They  read  more 
eagerly  than  most  others  in  India,  and  in  Calcutta  they 
issue  one  daily  paper  in  English,  quite  a  number  of  weekly 
English  papers,  and  a  very  large  number  of  vernacular 
papers. 

To  the  north  of  Bengal  proper  lies  the  historic  province 
of  Behar.  The  city  of  Patna,  which  has  for  some  time  past 
been  well  known  as  the  chief  seat  of  Mohammedan  influence 
in  that  region,  was  originally  the  capital  of  a  powerful  Bud- 
dhist kingdom.  It  was  at  this  royal  capital  that  the  well- 
known  Megasthenes  lived  for  some  years  as  ambassador 
from  one  of  the  Greek  courts,  and  from  his  writings  much 
valuable  information  has  been  gathered  concerning  the  con- 
dition of  ancient  India.  The  province  of  Behar  is  situated 
between  Oudh  on  the  north,  and  Bengal  on  the  south,  and 
resembles  both  of  these  provinces  in  the  richness  of  its  soil, 
its  climate,  and  its  general  productions.  It  contains  about 
44,000  square  miles,  and  a  population  of  about  24,000,000. 
The  people,  for  the  most  part,  speak  Hindustani  in  a  slightly 
modified  form;  but  missionaries  from  Upper  India  find  no 
difficulty  whatever  in  preaching  and  carrying  on  the  ordinary 
forms  of  missionary  work  among  them.  Thus  far  mission- 
ary work  has  not  made  much  progress  in  Behar.  A  German 
Lutheran  mission  has  been  at  work  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury, chiefly  on  the  northeastern  side  of  the  Ganges,  which 
river  runs  through  the  center  of  the  province.  To  the  west 
and  southwest  the  English  Baptists  have  several  stations ;  but 
thus  far  neither  they  nor  the  German  Lutherans  have  achieved 
any  marked  success  in  their  work.  For  some  reason  which 
I  have  never  been  able  to  understand,  this  promising  and 
most  important  region,  with  its  vast  population  of  23,000,- 
000,  has  been  much  overlooked  by  missionary  bodies  gener- 
ally. It  lies  on  the  highway  between  Bengal  and  Northern 
India,  and  can  not  have  escaped  notice ;  but,  as  with  the 
wounded -traveler  who  had  fallen  among  thieves,-the  journey- 


438  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

ing  missionaries  seem  to  have  passed  by  on  the  other  side 
without  pausing  to  inquire  if  they  had  any  duty  to  perform 
for  the  people.  Early  in  1888  our  own  church  sent  its  first 
missionary  into  Tirhoot,  a  district  of  Behar,  lying  north- 
east of  the  Ganges.  The  brother  chosen  was  the  Rev.  H. 
Jackson,  formerly  of  North  India,  but  who  had  for  a  time 
retired  from  the  field.  He  came  out  promptly  on  receiving 
his  appointment,  and  has  since  been  working,  with  his  family, 
at  the  station  of  Mazafarpur.  This  one  missionary  family, 
however,  must  be  looked  upon  as  merely  an  advance  guard. 
The  field  is  as  ripe  for  harvest,  and  gives  as  much  promise 
as  any  other  that  I  have  seen  in  India. 

Returning  now  to  Bengal  proper,  we  find  another  mission- 
field  of  extraordinary  promise.  It  is  true  that  more  mission- 
ary work  has  been  done  among  the  Bengali  people  than  in 
Behar,  and  more  also  than  had  been  done  in  Northern  India 
until  a  comparatively  recent  period.  All  the  great  missionary 
societies  of  England  are  represented  in  Bengal,  but  only  two 
American  societies  have  yet  entered  the  field.  Neither  of 
these  is  present  in  much  force,  and  outside  of  the  city  of  Cal- 
cutta the  American  missionary  influence  is  but  very  slight. 
Although  Dr.  Carey  began  his  great  work  in  Bengal  a  century 
ago,  and  was  followed  at  a  comparatively  early  day  by  mis- 
sionaries of  other  societies,  yet  vast  sections  of  the  country 
can  be  found  where  no  missionary  is  ever  seen,  and  there  are 
probably  millions  of  the  people  who  have  never  yet  heard 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  When  we  consider  the  important 
position  which  Bengal  occupies,  politically,  commercially, 
educationally,  and,  I  may  add,  religiously,  it  is  a  marvel 
that  our  great  missionary  leaders  have  not  seen  more  clearly 
the  importance,  if  not  absolute  necessity,  of  putting  forth 
more  strenuous  and  better  organized  efforts  for  the  conver- 
sion of  the  people.  It  might  perhaps  be  said,  by  way  of 
apology,  that  many  stations  have  been  established  at  impor- 
tant points  throughout  the  province ;  but  this  means  very 
little.  If,  for  instance,  a  district  containing  two  millions  of 


BENGAL.  439 

people  chances  to  have  a  central  station  at  which  one  or  two 
missionaries  live  and  labor,  it  does  not  by  any  means  follow 
that  the  people  generally  are  placed  within  reach  of  the 
gospel.  If  two  Buddhist  missionaries  were  to  determine  to 
establish  a  mission  for  the  propagation  of  their  faith  in  Iowa, 
and  select  an  ordinary  county-seat  as  their  mission-station, 
it  would  take  them  a  long  while  to  make  themselves  felt 
among  the  people  of  the  State  at  large,  even  though  they 
were  to  avail  themselves  of  all  the  advantages  which  news- 
papers, lecture-halls,  and  easy  and  rapid  locomotion  could 
give  them.  In  Bengal  two  missionaries  among  two  millions 
of  people  find  it  still  more  difficult  to  make  their  presence 
felt.  The  railway  does  not  carry  them  to  the  masses  of  the 
people  in  their  quiet  villages,  nor  are  there  any  daily  papers, 
lecture-halls,  or  other  means  of  access  to  those  whom  they 
would  willingly  reach.  As  a  sad  matter  of  fact,  there  are 
millions  upon  millions  of  the  people  who  are  practically  as 
much  neglected,  and  as  far  from  the  sound  of  the  gospel  call, 
as  their  ancestors  were  when  William  Carey  first  landed 
upon  Indian  soil. 

In  another  chapter  I  have  briefly  told  the  story  of  our 
own  entrance  into  Bengal.  We  were  led  to  establish  per- 
manent work  in  the  city  of  Calcutta  through  the  success 
which  God  gave  us  among  the  English-speaking  people  of 
that  city.  Very  soon  after  organizing  our  church  in  Cal- 
cutta, Bengali  Christians  began  to  gather  around  us,  at  first 
in  small  numbers,  but,  as  the  years  went  by,  slowly  but  steadily 
increasing.  The  native  Christian  community  in  that  city, 
though  not  very  large,  has  become  very  much  like  an  ordinary 
community  in  England  or  America ;  that  is,  it  is  composed 
of  some  earnest  Christians,  some  who  are  comparatively  in- 
different, and  not  a  few  who  have  thrown  off  the  restraints  of 
religion  and  are  living  lives  of  utter  worldliness.  It  was 
among  these  last  that  our  first  converts  were  gathered. 
Nearly  all  of  them  had  drifted  into  the  city  from  country 
districts,  where  they  had  become  Christians,  and,  being  sepa- 


440  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

rated  from  their  earlier  and  better  associations,  they  practically 
gave  up  not  only  their  Christian  integrity,  but  almost  the 
very  Christian  name.  After  a  time  we  began  to  make  con- 
verts from  Hinduism,  chiefly  through  the  agency  of  these 
people,  and  the  work  thus  commenced  in  the  city  gradually 
extended  itself  into  the  country  districts  between  Calcutta 
and  the  sea,  in  some  sections  of  which  many  native  Chris- 
tians are  found.  We  have  had  more  or  less  direct  conver- 
sions from  Hinduism  in  that  region  every  year,  but  upon  the 
whole  the  work  has  not  been  satisfactory.  We  do  better  in 
every  way  when  we  go  among  the  heathen  exclusively,  and 
train  our  own  converts  from  the  beginning,  instead  of  re- 
ceiving those  who  have  perhaps,  more  than  once  in  their 
lives,  changed  their  religious  profession. 

In  like  manner,  a  work  among  the  Hindustani-speaking 
people  of  Calcutta  began  a  number  of  years  ago ;  and,  al- 
though its  progress  has  not  been  so  decided  or  satisfactory  as 
that  among  the  Bengalis,  yet  a  Hindustani  church  with  about 
a  hundred  members  has  been  organized,  and,  considering  all 
the  circumstances,  is  doing  fairly  well.  During  the  present 
year  an  opening  has  also  been  found  among  the  Ooriyas — that 
is,  the  natives  of  Orissa,  the  province  mentioned  above  as 
lying  to  the  southeast  of  Calcutta.  A  very  large  number  of 
Ooriyas  live  in  Calcutta  permanently,  and  thus  far  very  little 
has  been  done  for  them  by  any  of  the  missionaries  of  the  city. 
We  hope  to  do  what  we  can  for  them,  although  it  is  no  part 
of  our  plan  to  establish  separate  missions  in  Orissa  itself. 

The  city  of  Calcutta  is,  for  missionary  purposes,  beyond 
doubt  the  most  important  point  in  the  East.  Not  only  does 
it  stand,  like  Singapore  and  Bombay,  at  one  of  the  great 
Cross-roads  of  the  nations,  with  a  far-reaching  influence  in 
every  direction,  but  in  India  proper  its  position,  from  a  re- 
ligious point  of  view,  is  very  commanding.  More  than  any 
other  city  in  the  empire,  it  is  constantly  in  full  view  of  all 
the  Indian  people,  and  any  great  event  which  occurs  in 
Calcutta,  not  only  attracts  more  attention,  but  produces  a 


BENGAL.  441 

deeper  and  more  lasting  impression  upon  the  public  mind 
than  if  it  took  place  elsewhere.  A  great  religious  movement 
beginning  here  would  at  once  arrest  attention  everywhere 
throughout  India,  and  the  church  or  society  which  wishes  to 
secure  and  permanently  hold  a  strong  position  in  India  and 
the  East,  should  be  well  represented  in  Calcutta.  So  far  as 
our  work  among  the  English-speaking  people  is  concerned, 
we  have  perhaps  nothing  to  complain  of,  occupying  as  we  do 
the  largest  church,  and  preaching  to  the  largest  congrega- 
tion in  the  city;  but  so  far  as  our  work  among  the  Bengalis 
is  concerned,  we  have  not  only  failed  to  do  our  full  duty  in  the 
past,  but  have  now  reached  a  point  where  it  becomes  imper- 
ative upon  us  to  make  a  most  vigorous  and  effectual  advance. 
We  should  have  a  number  of  young  men  at  once  at  work 
among  the  great  college  population  of  the  city,  and  we  should 
set  them  apart  so  exclusively  for  this  work,  that  nothing  in 
the  future  shall  in  any  way  interfere  with  their  special  duty. 
The  work  among  the  Bengali  women  also  should  be  prose- 
cuted with  new  vigor.  That  field  is  peculiarly  ripe,  and  a 
rich  harvest  may  be  regarded  as  near  at  hand  if  only  reapers 
can  be  found  to  enter  the  field. 

Taking  the  whole  region  represented  on  the  maps  as  Ben- 
gal, we  are  called  upon  imperatively  to  extend  our  lines  and 
increase  our  working  force  immediately.  If  we  create  a  pre- 
siding elder's  district  in  Behar,  corresponding  in  a  moderate 
degree  with  a  similar  district  in  North  India,  and  place  not 
less  than  three  new  missionaries  in  that  field  at  once,  we  may 

>  confidently  expect,  after  a  few  years  of  preliminary  work,  to 
begin  to  gather  in  converts  as  rapidly  as  we  are  now  doing  in 
Rohilkhand  or  the  Doab.  The  same  remark  is  true  of  Bengal. 
If  we  at  once  strengthen  our  position  in  the  city  of  Calcutta, 
and  send  out  three  or  four  tried  and  true  missionaries  to  im- 
portant centers  in  the  country,  we  may  as  confidently  expect 
an  annual  ingathering  of  five  thousand  converts  here  as  in 
the  North.  In  other  words,  if  we  attempt  to  do  our  duty  to 
this  vast  dependency,  including  as  it  does  one-third  of  the 


442  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

population  of  India  within  its  boundaries,  we  must  confi- 
dently look  forward  to  the  not  remote  time  when  our  mission- 
aries shall  report  ten  thousand  converts  a  year.  I  know, 
only  too  well,  that  many  good  men  have  an  excessive  dis- 
like of  estimates  of  this  kind;  but  the  time  has  come  for  us  to 
be  practical,  and  if  we  can  not  engage  in  this  blessed  mission- 
ary work  with  even  that  small  measure  of  confidence  which  an- 
ticipates moderate  success  at  the  end  of  a  reasonable  time,  we 
may  as  well  abandon  our  gigantic  task  altogether.  Let  the 
church  at  home  understand  fully  that  in  Behar  and  Bengal  we 
have  two  doors  standing  wide  open,  easy  of  access,  and  both 
leading  to  assured  success.  Our  people  can  not  neglect  to 
enter  in,  and  be  guiltless. 


Chapter   XXXIY. 

BURMA. 

HHHOSE  who  remember  the  lessons  in  geography  which 
1  they  received  in  school  forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  may  be 
able  to  recall  the  map  of  Asia,  with  a  country  called  Hindu- 
stan, which  represented  the  India  of  the  present  day;  and  to 
the  southeast  of  this  another  country,  called  Farther  India, 
which  represented  the  kingdoms  of  Burma,  Siam,  Cambodia, 
Anam>  and  Tonquin.  This  region  was  wholly  unlike  India, 
and  it  is  probable  that  the  name,  Farther  India,  was  merely 
given  to  it  by  the  map-makers  in  default  of  a  better  term. 
The  countries  in  question  are  thoroughly  Asiatic,  but  not  in 
any  special  sense  Indian.  The  chief  among  these  was,  and 
still  is,  Burma,  which  was  an  independent  and  somewhat 
powerful  kingdom  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century. 
Its  territory  then  extended  far  within  the  present  boundaries 
of  India  proper,  while  it  maintained  an  intermittent  warfare 
with  Siam  and  China  in  regard  to  its  northern  and  eastern 
boundaries.  The  kings  of  Burma  have  always  been  absolute 
monarchs,  and  given  to  tyrannical  ways,  and  early  in  the 
present  century  became  involved  with  the  Indian  Govern- 
ment. This  resulted  in  successive  wars  and  annexations  of 
territory,  which  finally  included  all  the  sea-coast  and  the 
richer  part  of  the  territory  which  is  known  as  Lower  Burma. 
From  1852  to  1886,  a  period  of  thirty-four  years,  the  country 
was  known,  in  its  two  divisions,  as  British  and  Independent 
Burma. 

In  1878  the  last  Burman  king,  Theebaw,  ascended  the 
throne.  He  had  been  educated  in  an  English  school,  and  it 
was  expected  that  he  would  display  better  qualities  as  a  ruler 

443 


444  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

than  had  been  common  among  his  predecessors.  This  hope, 
however,  was  grievously  disappointed.  He  at  once  began  a 
reckless  career,  and  gave  himself  up  to  a  life  of  cruelty  and 
oppression.  The  British  Resident  was  repeatedly  insulted, 
and  before  the  close  of  the  first  year  of  Theebaw's  adminis- 
tration, withdrawn.  True  to  the  Oriental  instinct,  which  in 
all  past  times  has  prompted  so  many  tyrants  when  ascending 
a  throne  to  destroy  all  possible  rivals,  Theebaw  ordered  the 
slaughter  of  nearly  all  his  relatives.  The  Indian  Govern- 
ment was  at  this  time  engaged  in  a  serious  war  on  its  north- 
western frontier,  and  threatened  with  still  more  serious 
trouble  from  the  Russians,  and  hence  could  not  at  once  in- 
tervene in  the  affairs  of  Burma.  Finally,  in  1885,  it  was 
discovered  that  Theebaw  was  negotiating  with  the  French, 
who  were  his  near  neighbors  in  Tonquin ;  and  this  at  once 
made  it  imperative  upon  the  English  to  intervene.  It  would 
never  have  done  to  allow  the  French  to  gain  a  perma- 
nent lodgment  in  Upper  Burma.  An  ultimatum  was  sent 
to  the  short-sighted  Theebaw,  which  had  only  the  effect  of 
inducing  him  immediately  to  begin  hostilities.  He  was 
quickly  overthrown,  and  on  the  first  of  January,  1886,  Lord 
Dufferin  annexed  all  the  remaining  territory  of  Burma  to  the 
Indian  Empire. 

The  kingdom  of  Burma,  which  thus  became  a  province  of 
the  Indian  Empire,  comprises  a  large  tract  of  country  con- 
taining nearly  200,000  square  miles,  but  with  the  compara- 
tively small  population  of  only  7,550,000.  This  population 
is  composed  of  various  races,  the  Burmans — or  Burmese,  as 
they  are  sometimes  called — taking  the  leading  place.  They 
are  a  branch  of  the  great  Mongolian  family,  with  a  light 
yellow  rather  than  a  dark  brown  complexion,  speak  a  tonal 
language,  and  show  other  marks  of  close  affiliation  to  the 
Chinese.  In  ordinary  intercourse  they  seem  to  be  an  ami- 
able, sprightly,  and  intelligent  race,  and  are  often  called  the 
Irish  of  the  East.  They  are  fond  of  gay  colors,  and  are  for 
the  most  part  a  gay  people.  They  enjoy  a  good  joke,  even 


BURMA.  445 

though  it  be  at  their  own  expense,  and  in  this  respect  they 
are  said  to  differ  very  much  from  the  Karens  who  live 
among  them.  The  men  are  not  fond  of  work,  and  not  only 
most  of  the  work,  but  often  the  business  of  the  family,  is 
wholly  left  to  the  management  of  the  housewife.  The 
women  are  industrious,  and  said  to  be  excellent  managers.  I 
was  struck  during  my  last  visit  to  Rangoon  with  a  remark 
made  by  our  missionary  there,  when  speaking  of  a  woman 
who  had  become  a  Christian,  and  who,  in  consequence,  would 
probably  be  deserted  by  her  husband.  I  asked  what  could  be 
done  for  her.  "  O,  she  will  take  care  of  herself,"  was  the 
reply.  "  She  can  easily  earn  her  own  livelihood."  When  I 
asked  in  what  way  she  could  do  so,  I  was  told  that  she  would 
adopt  any  one  of  half  a  dozen  different  callings  in  order  to 
earn  her  bread,  and  that  that  part  of  the  problem  needed  give 
no  concern  whatever.  It  would  have  been  very  different 
had  the  case  occurred  in  India,  where  a  woman  thus  cast  upon 
the  world  is  almost  helpless. 

The  zenana  system  of  India  is  unknown  in  Burma.  The 
women  go  abroad  with  the  utmost  freedom,  never  so  much 
as  wearing  a  veil.  They  have  adopted  the  peculiar  and  by 
no  means  becoming  habit  of  smoking  huge  cigars.  The  best 
dressed  ladies  in  the  street  will  be  found  with  a  cigar,  some 
three  or  four  times  the  size  of  an  ordinary  American  weed. 
The  accompanying  picture  will  give  at  once  a  fair  specimen 
of  a  good-looking  Burmese  woman,  with  her  peculiar  if  not 
repulsive  habit  of  smoking  at  all  times,  whether  in  season  or 
out  of  season.  The  huge  cigar  is  not  composed  wholly  of 
tobacco  leaves.  The  tobacco  is  wrapped  up  in  an  ordinary 
leaf,  which  resembles  tobacco  in  appearance,  but  is  as  harm- 
less as  so  much  paper.  When  in  the  mouth,  however,  it  re- 
sembles an  ordinary  cigar  so  much  in  every  respect,  except- 
ing size,  that  the  observer,  if  a  stranger,  would  never  sup- 
pose that  it  was  composed  of  any  other  leaf. 

The  Karens  have  long  been  known  to  the  religious  pub- 
lic in  America  by  the  remarkable  story  of  the  success  of  the 


INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 


Baptist  missions  among  them.  Every  reader  of  the  "  Life  and 
Labors  of  Dr.  Judson  "  will  be  familiar  with  the  story  of  the 
discovery  of  the  remarkable  people  from  the  jungle,  known 
as  the  Karens,  and  of  the  extraordinary  manner  in  which 
their  minds  had  been  prepared  for  the  reception  of  the 


A  BURMESE  WOMAN. 

gospel.  They  are  found  in  different  tribes,  all  resembling  one 
another  in  certain  important  respects,  and  yet  differing 
among  themselves  like  the  various  tribes  of  American  In- 
dians. They  possess  many  fine  qualities  as  a  people,  and 
since  becoming  Christians  have  advanced  steadily  and  even 
rapidly  in  civilization  and  refinement.  The  Baptist  missions 


BURMA.  447 

are  still  largely  confined  to  them,  and  their  work  among  them 
continues  to  make  steady  progress.  The  ultimate  conversion 
of  the  whole  of  these  people  is  only  a  question  of  time,  and 
probably  of  a  very  brief  time. 

Farther  to  the  north  another  people  are  found,  called  the 
Shans.  These,  like  the  Karens,  are  in  different  tribes,  and 
speak  different  dialects.  They  also  are  an  interesting  and 
promising  race.  The  gospel  has  made  some  headway  among 
them,  but  they  have  not  yet  been  found  as  accessible  as  the 
Karens  were.  The  missionaries,  however,  regard  the  work 
among  them  as  very  hopeful,  and  find  no  cause  whatever  for 
serious  discouragement  in  connection  with  it. 

Still  farther  to  the  north  are  found  the  Chins.  These 
people  occupy  the  border-land  between  Burma  and  China. 
Their  civilization  is  lower,  and  their  morals  and  social  life 
more  depressed,  than  those  of  the  Shans  and  Karens.  Polyg- 
amy is  more  prevalent  among  them,  and  they  are  also  some- 
what given  to  predatory  warfare.  Only  a  few  years  before 
the  overthrow  of  Theebaw  an  invasion  of  the  Chins  occurred 
in  Upper  Burma,  during  which  the  important  town  of  Bhamo 
was  wrested  from  the  Burmese.  The  invading  patty  were 
assisted  by  an  interpreter,  who  proved  to  be  a  Chinese  Chris- 
tian that  had  been  baptized  by  our  own  missionaries  in  Foo 
Chow.  This  man,  when  I  last  heard  from  him,  was  still  in 
Upper  Burma,  and,  although  not  living  a  satisfactory  life, 
continued  to  profess  the  Christian  religion. 

In  addition  to  these  long  settled  races,  in  more  recent 
years  Burma  has  received  a  considerable  number  of  immi- 
grants both  from  China  and  India.  The  Chinese  have  come 
in  part  overland  from  the  northeast;  but  most  of  those  set- 
tled in  the  sea-port  cities  came  by  sea.  They  are  here,  as 
everywhere,  an  industrious  people,  and  are  rapidly  becoming 
rooted  in  the  soil.  As  they  profess  the  same  religion  as  the 
Burmese,  the  latter  have  no  objection  whatever  to  negotiating 
marriages  with  them,  and  the  children  of  these  mixed  mar- 
riages grow  up  in  the  country,  often  speaking  both  Chinese 


448  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

and  Burmese,  and  becoming  valuable  members  of  society. 
The  Chinese  element  in  Rangoon  is  already  a  very  powerful 
factor  in  the  growth  of  the  business  of  the  city,  and  it  is  by 
no  means  improbable  that  now,  since  the  country  has  become 
thoroughly  settled,  immigration  from  the  northeast  will 
proceed  more  rapidly,  and  in  time  a  new  nation  grow  up  in 
Burma,  conforming  more  nearly  to  the  Chinese  standard  than 
the  Burmese. 

The  immigrants  from  India  are  not  looked  upon  with 
very  much  favor  by  the  people;  but  they  receive  high  wages, 
and  but  for  their  drinking  habits  would  quickly  become  at- 
tached to  the  soil,  and  form  an  important  element  in  the  pop- 
ulation. It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  they  will  keep 
pace  with  the  Chinese  in  the  race  of  progress.  They  are 
settled,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  sea-port  towns,  or  in  their 
immediate  vicinity.  Many  of  them  have  become  permanent 
residents;  but  the  majority  return  to  India  as  soon  as  they 
have  accumulated  enough  money  to  justify  them  in  doing  so. 

The  chief  sea-port  of  Burma  is  Rangoon,  a  town  which 
has  risen  very  rapidly  in  commercial  importance  since  the 
annexation  of  Lower  Burma  by  the  Indian  Government.  It 
is  now  the  fourth  sea-port  of  the  empire  in  importance,  if 
not  indeed  the  third.  Madras  still  surpasses  it  in  popula- 
tion ;  but  the  trade  of  Rangoon  has  for  some  years  past  been 
advancing  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and  the  city  will  soon  assume 
its  place  as  third  in  rank  among  all  the  sea-port  towns  of  the 
Indian  Empire.  It  is  laid  out  in  regular  streets,  being  the 
only  city  I  have  yet  seen  in  the  East  which  in  this  respect 
resembles  an  American  town.  The  streets,  however,  are  di- 
vided into  three  classes,  only  a  few  of  which  are  wide 
enough  for  comfort  and  convenience.  Some  are  so  narrow 
as  to  merit  only  the  name  of  alleys,  or  at  best  lanes.  Only 
a  very  few  thoroughfares,  wThich  might  more  properly  be 
called  avenues,  are  wide  enough  to  be  worthy  of  so  impor- 
tant a  city. 

In    Rangoon  and  vicinity  are   found   a  number  of  the 


BURMA.  449 

pagodas  for  which  Burma  is  famous.  One  of  these,  the  Shwe 
Dagon,  or  Great  Pagoda,  is  famous  throughout  the  East. 
It  stands  on  a  slight  eminence,  in  the  rear  of  the  city,  about 
a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  river,  and  is  three  hundred  and 
seventy-five  feet  high  from  its  base.  It  is  a  solid  structure, 
made  of  brick,  and  richly  covered  with,  pure  gold.  It  is 
surrounded  by  shrines  of  various  kinds,  many  of  them  being 
small  pagodas  about  thirty  feet  high.  Around  each  of  the 
smaller  pagodas  are  dragons,  kneeling  elephants,  and  altars 
for  the  reception  of  offerings.  A  constant  stream  of  appar- 
ently devout  people  may  be  seen  at  all  hours  wending  their 
way  to  these  shrines.  The  pagoda  is  supposed  to  have  been 
originally  erected  for  the  reception  of  sacred  relics,  but  in 
itself  serves  no  purpose  except  that  of  a  monument.  It  is 
regarded,  however,  with  great  veneration  by  the  people,  and 
no  doubt  will  be,  in  the  ages  to  come,  an  object  of  curious 
interest  long  after  the  present  traditions  of  Buddhism  shall 
have  vanished  away. 

The  chief  exports  of  Rangoon  are  teak-lumber  and  rice. 
The  mills  for  hulling  the  rice,  and  saw-mills  for  cutting  up 
the  teak-logs,  line  both  sides  of  the  river  on  which  the  city 
stands,  and  afford  employment  to  large  numbers  of  the  peo- 
ple. Here  for  many  years  the  curious  spectacle  of  elephants 
patiently  working  in  the  saw-mills  has  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  strangers.  These  huge  creatures  are  found  to  be  ex- 
tremely useful  when  working  among  the  logs,  or  drawing 
out  the  sawn  timber  preparatory  to  loading  it  on  the  ships 
in  the  river. 

Our  own  work  in  Burma  was  thrust  upon  us,  rather  than 
sought  by  us.  When  I  began  my  own  work  in  Calcutta,  in 
1874,  I  very  soon  came  in  contact  with  persons  who  had 
lived  in  Rangoon,  and  who  lost  no  time  in  writing  to  their 
friends  in  that  city  of  the  new  work  which  we  were  begin- 
ning in  Calcutta.  The  result  was  that  I  received  immediate 
and  urgent  invitations  to  go  to  Rangoon.  These  invitations 
continued  from  time  to  time,  and  constantly  became  more 

29 


450  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSfA. 

urgent,  until  I  could  not  but  regard  them  as  to  some  extent, 
at  least,  providential.  Finally,  after  nearly  five  years  of 
waiting,  I  determined  to  go  and  see  if  God  had  anything  for 
us  to  do  in  Rangoon.  About  the  same  time  some  parties  in 
America  became  much  interested  in  this  work,  and,  at  the 
session  of  the  Rock  River  Conference  in  1878,  money  was 
collected  with  which  to  send  a  missionary  to  Rangoon.  This 
alone  seemed  sufficient  to  decide  our  course ;  but  it  was  not 
until  I  received  a  telegram  that  a  missionary  and  wife  had 
actually  arrived  in  the  city,  that  I  finally  sailed  for  that  place. 
The  missionary  was  the  Rev.  R.  E.  Carter,  of  Ohio.  Ran- 
goon is  seven  hundred  and  eighty  miles  southeast  of  Calcutta. 
I  left  in  the  early  part  of  the  rainy  season,  and  found  the 
Bay  of  Bengal  in  its  very  worst  mood,  the  monsoon  having 
just  burst.  The  late  Rev.  F.  A.  Goodwin,  at  that  time  my 
colleague  in  Calcutta,  accompanied  me. 

We  were  kindly  received  by  Baptist  friends,  and  invited 
to  use  the  small  chapel  in  which,  at  that  time,  the  Baptist 
missionaries  held  their  English  service.  Previous  to  that 
time  Dr.  Stevens,  of  the  Baptist  Mission,  had  been  preaching 
every  Sunday  evening  to  a  small  English  congregation,  and 
also  holding  a  prayer-meeting  on  Wednesday  evenings.  The 
Baptist  missionaries,  however,  had  given  themselves  wholly 
to  vernacular  work,  and  had  not  found  it  practicable  to  at- 
tempt the  organization  of  a  regular  church  with  all  its  usual 
appliances  for  the  English-speaking  people.  I  was  much  ex- 
hausted on  arrival,  and  had  only  two  weeks  to  spend  in  the 
city.  The  first  evening  I  attended  the  usual  Baptist  prayer- 
meeting,  at  which  it  was  announced  that  our  meetings  would 
begin  the  following  evening.  I  continued  to  preach  twice  a 
day  during  the  fortnight  that  I  was  able  to  stay  in  the  city, 
and  God  wonderfully  opened  our  way.  I  may  here  say  that, 
in  going  to  the  city,  we  had  no  resources  whatever  except 
God's  promises.  We  had  to  borrow  money  with  which  to 
pay  for  our  steamer  tickets,  although  furnished  to  us  at 
greatly  reduced  rates.  At  the  end  of  two  weeks,  however, 


BURMA.  451 

we  had  not  only  money  enough  to  pay  for  our  passage  up  and 
down,  but  were  in  possession  of  a  valuable  plot  of  land  at 
the  corner  of  two  main  streets,  on  which  to  build  a  church 
and  parsonage,  We  had  an  organized  church  of  sixty  or 
seventy  members,  a  Sunday-school  in  operation,  had  held  our 
first  Quarterly  Conference,  had  licensed  one  local  preacher 
and  two  or  three  exhorters,  had  held  our  first  class-meeting 
and  love-feast,  and  had  commenced  street-preaching  in  three 
different  languages.  In  other  words,  we  had  quickly  and 
permanently  become  rooted  in  the  soil  of  Burma. 

As  remarked  in  another  chapter,  the  opening  of  a  work 
among  English  people,  such  as  that  "commenced  in  Rangoon, 
at  once  committed  us  to  general  missionary  work  among  the 
people  around  us.  It  could  not  have  been  otherwise.  The 
result  in  Rangoon  has  clearly  illustrated  this.  Among  the 
very  first  of  those  influenced  by  our  meetings  were  men 
who  spoke  both  Telugu  and  Tamil — two  of  the  Indian  lan- 
guages represented  in  the  city.  These  men  began  to  preach 
in  the  language  with  which  they  were  most  familiar,  and 
very  soon  a  small  membership  began  to  gather  around  them. 
This  work  has  gone  on  to  the  present  day,  and  although  its 
progress  has  been  slow,  owing  to  the  constant  return  of  con- 
verts to  India,  yet  it  gets  a  little  stronger  year  by  year,  and 
becomes  more  and  more  rooted  in  the  soil. 

The  Burmese  have  heretofore  not  proved  to  be  a  very  ac- 
cessible people  to  the  Christian  missionary.  From  the  be- 
ginning, Dr.  Judson  found  them  not  merely  indifferent,  but 
1  actually  hostile  both  to  him  and  his  message  ;  and  up  to  the 
present  day  the  Baptist  missionaries  in  most  parts  of  the 
country  regard  the  Burmese  as  the  least  hopeful  part  of  the 
community.  The  Karens  offered  the  richest  harvest,  while 
the  Shans,  and  even  the  Chins,  take  precedence  of  the  Bur- 
mese so  far  as  accessibility  to  the  missionary  is  concerned. 
When  I  first  visited  Rangoon,  I  saw  no  indication  of  any 
special  interest  on  the  part  of  the  Burmese  people ;  but  in 
more  recent  years  I  have  perceived  a  change  which  is  unmis- 


452  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

takable  and  certainly  very  remarkable.  Early  in  1889,  when 
I  arrived  in  Rangoon  on  my  annual  visit,  I  was  met  at  once 
by  a  Tamil  Christian,  who  asked  me  to  go  with  him  to  a  vil- 
lage on  the  Pegu  river,  some  fifteen  miles  distant,  and  bap- 
tize a  few  Burmese  converts.  The  request  was  an  extraor- 
dinary one,  not  only  because  the  converts  were  Burmese,  but 
because  they  had  been  reached  and  influenced  by  a  despised 
Indian.  I  went,  however,  taking  with  me  the  Rev.  S.  P. 
Long,  at  that  time  our  missionary  in  Rangoon,  and  a  num- 
ber of  other  Christian  workers.  None  of  these,  however, 
could  speak  Burmese  except  a  young  girl  of  sixteen,  belong- 
ing to  our  girls'  boarding-school.  This  young  disciple  acted 
as  interpreter;  and  when  we  reached  the  village  and  the 
people  gathered  around  us,  all  eager  to  hear  who  we  were 
and  what  our  errand  among  them  was,  she  did  her  part  ex- 
tremely well.  I  soon  perceived,  as  she  went  on  talking  to 
them,  that  she  was  not  only  giving  them  my  words,  but  add- 
ing a  good  many  of  her  own;  and  in  the  course  of  the  day 
she  had  many  long  talks  with  them  in  which  I  was  not  re- 
quired to  give  any  assistance.  Before  we  left  in  the  evening 
I  baptized  five  persons,  and  in  this  way  we  gained  a  slight 
foot-hold  in  this  one  little  village. 

A  year  later  I  went  to  the  same  place  again,  and  on  the 
way  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  young  man  who  could  speak 
English,  and  who  had  been  brought  up  in  the  midst  of  Chris- 
tian associations.  This  man  became  interested,  and  was  bap- 
tized by  me  on  my  return  up  the  coast,  a  few  weeks  later.  He 
opened  a  school  for  boys  in  the  city,  which  has  continued 
successfully  to  the  present  day.  The  strange  feature  about 
this  school  is,  that  not  only  do  the  boys  pay  fees  enough  to 
make  it  almost  self-supporting,  but  a  number  of  them  have 
been  converted  and  baptized  without  exciting  either  the  fear 
or  the  hostility  of  their  parents.  Nothfbg  of  the  kind  has 
ever  occurred  in  our  school-work  in  India.  It  would  be  im- 
possible for  any  number  of  our  school-boys  to  profess  Chris- 
tianity without  creating  an  uproar  which,  for  a  time,  would 


BURMA.  453 

break  up  the  school.  The  parents  also  would  be  smitten 
with  either  anger  or  fear  if  they  heard  mention  of  such  a 
thing.  The  Rev.  Julius  Smith,  our  present  missionary  in 
Rangoon,  tells  me  that  not  only  is  this  school  going  on  suc- 
cessfully, but  that  he  has  received  applications  to  establish 
others,  with  offers  of  liberal  aid ;  and  it  is  his  opinion  that 
if  we  were  only  prepared  for  an  organized  work,  we  would 
find  open  before  us  a  wide  and  effectual  door  of  access  to  the 
Burmese  people.  I  quite  agree  with  him  in  his  opinion  in 
this  case.  One  of  the  most  interesting  and  promising  fields 
that  we  now  have  before  us  in  all  the  East  is  in  Burma,  and 
among  the  leading  people  of  Burma.  It  is  practically  a  new 
field;  for,  although  the  Baptist  missionaries  have  long  been 
preaching  in  that  tongue,  they  have  made  comparatively  few 
converts  among  the  Burmese  proper.  Some  of  their  oldest 
missionaries  speak  of  this  part  of  the  work  as  utterly  discour- 
aging. They  are  older  and  more  experienced  than  we  are, 
and  possibly  would  speak  in  less  hopeful  terms  than  I  do  of 
the  signs  of  promise  which  have  lately  appeared.  Neverthe- 
less the  field  is  there,  the  people  invite  us,  and  we  can 
hardly  refuse  the  offers  they  make  us,  and  be  guiltless. 

I  can  only  state  in  barest  details  the  present  condition  of 
our  work  in  Burma.  We  have  a  small  but  energetic  and 
devoted  English  Church  in  Rangoon.  In  all  the  Methodist 
world  no  church  of  equal  membership  can  be  found  which 
has  undertaken  and  accomplished  more  than  has  been  done 
by  this  little  band  of  Christian  believers.  They  started  an 
orphanage  some  years  ago  for  European  and  Eurasian  chil- 
'dren,  Burma  being  somewhat  noted  for  the  large  number  of 
the  latter  class  who  are  found  abandoned  by  European 
fathers,  and  with  mothers  unable  to  support  them.  They 
have  a  coffee-room  and  seamen's  rest  at  a  short  distance 
from  their  church.  They  have  four  organized  churches — one 
for  English-speaking  people,  one  for  Tamils,  a  third  for 
Telugus,  and  a  fourth  for  the  Burmese.  They  have  an  ex- 
cellent girls'  boarding-school,  both  for  boarders  and  day 


454  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

pupils.  They  are  devising  the  organization  of  a  boys' 
school  of  like  character.  They  have  never  been  aided  very 
materially  in  their  work,  and  have  been  compelled  for  the 
most  part  to  depend  upon  their  own  resources.  Both  of  our 
Missionary  Societies  should  come  to  their  aid  quickly  and  in 
the  most  liberal  spirit.  God  has  a  great  work  for  us  to  do  in 
that  rising  province,  and  we  should  lose  no  time  in  availing 
ourselves  of  the  splendid  opportunities  which  are  now  oifered 
to  us. 


Ci>apber  XXXV. 

CENTRAL  AND  SOUTH  INDIA. 

THE  region  formerly  known  as  Central  India  has  for 
political  reasons  been  recently  divided  into  two  large 
sections,  one  known  as  Central  India,  and  the  other  as  the 
Central  Provinces.  The  former  lies  north  of  the  Vindhya 
Mountains,  and  is  for  the  most  part  composed  of  feudatory 
native  States.  It  is  a  somewhat  arid  region,  containing 
75,000  square  miles  and  about  9,500,000  inhabitants.  We 
have  only  one  mission  within  its  borders,  the  station  of 
Ajmere,  which  is  included  in  the  Agra  District  of  the  North 
India  Conference.  Mention  of  this  mission  has  been  made 
in  a  previous  chapter,  and  needs  not  be  repeated  here. 

The  Central  Provinces  occupy  the  actual  center  of  the 
Indian  Empire.  The  name  is  applied  politically  to  a  group 
of  small  provinces  administered  by  a  Chief  Commissioner, 
who  has  his  residence  in  the  city  of  Nagpore.  The  provinces 
are  divided  into  four  divisions,  each  supervised  by  a  Com- 
missioner, with  eighteen  smaller  districts,  having  the  usual 
quota  of  magistrates  and  other  district  officers.  The  Ner- 
budda  River  flows  through  the  northern  part  of  the  Central 
Provinces,  and  the  Nerbudda  Valley  District  is  the  name  of 
one  of  the  presiding  elder's  districts  of  the  Bengal  Confer- 
ence. A  railway  connects  the  stations  occupied  by  us  in 
this  valley,  and  aifords  many  advantages  in  the  prosecution 
of  our  work.  The  Rev.  C.  P.  Hard,  the  present  presiding 
elder,  has  reported  very  encouraging  progress  during  the 
present  year.  About  700  converts  of  all  ages  have  been  bap- 

455 


456  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

tized,*  and  new  openings  present  themselves  at  many  points 
in  the  valley.  We  occupy  the  cities  of  Jabalpur,  Narsingh- 
pur,  Harda,  Khandwa,  and  Burhanpur;  but  our  force  needs 
to  be  greatly  strengthened  in  order  to  make  the  district  what 
it  ought  to  be.  South  of  the  Nerbudda  Valley  the  Satpura 
range  of  mountains  runs  east  and  west,  and  made  until 
recently  the  boundary-line  between  the  Bengal  and  South 
India  Conferences.  South  of  the  Satpura  range  we  occupy 
the  two  important  cities  of  Nagpore  and  Kampti.  Thus  far 
our  missionaries  have  not  achieved  much  success  among  the 
natives;  but  the  prospects  are  favorable,  and  there  is  no 
reason  whatever  to  doubt  that  we  can  succeed  as  well  in  the 
regions  south  as  in  the  north  of  the  Satpuras.  Thus  far  we 
have  not  been  able  to  bring  the  same  forces  into  action,  and, 
in  fact,  have  been  doing  little  more  than  holding  our  ground 
so  far  as  work  among  the  natives  is  concerned. 

We  were  led  into  all  this  region  by  our  work  among  the 
English-speaking  people.  We  occupied  Jabalpur  and  Nag- 
pore  many  years  ago,  and  subsequently  our  evangelists 
pushed  up  and  down  the  railways,  and  won  many  converts  at 
different  stations.  We  first  attempted  little  more  than  to 
take  care  of  these  converts,  but,  as  has  happened  everywhere 
else,  such  work  inevitably  leads  to  the  prosecution,  first  on  a 
small  scale,  of  a  simple  work  among  the  natives,  followed  in 
due  time  by  a  better  organized  and  vigorous  system.  The 
whole  field  of  the  Central  Provinces  is  a  hopeful  one,  and 
will  doubtless  yield  us  a  rich  harvest  if  we  are  even  moder- 
ately faithful  to  our  opportunities. 

Leaving  Bombay,  and  proceeding  by  railway  toward  the 
southeast,  we  enter  the  country  known  as  the  Deccan,  or 
South  Country,  and  twenty-four  hours  after  setting  out  on 
our  journey  we  reach  the  large  and  important  city  of  Hy- 
derabad. Here  we  find  many  of  the  people  speaking  Hin- 
dustani; but  this  language  is  confined  almost  exclusively  to 

*This  number  has  since  been  largely  increased.  The  Rev.  T.  S. 
Johnson,  M.  D.,  is  the  present  presiding  elder. 


CENTRAL  AND  SOUTH  INDIA.  457 

the  city,  and  is  chiefly  spoken  by  settlers  from  North  India, 
or  the  descendants  of  such.  The  mass  of  the  people  of  the 
great  Province  of  Hyderabad,  better  known  as  the  Nizam's 
Dominions,  speak  Kanarese,  Telugu,  or  Marathi.  Im- 
mediately around  the  city  of  Hyderabad  we  find  Telugu  the 
prevailing  tongue.  A  little  west  we  encounter  Kanarese, 
which  is  spoken  throughout  most  of  the  region  south  and 
southwest  of  Hyderabad,  until  we  reach  the  southern  limits 
of  the  Province  of  Mysore.  The  Telugu  is  spoken  to  the 
eastward  and  as  far  north  as  the  southern  boundary  of  Orissa. 
Farther  south  we  encounter  the  Tamil  language.  We  thus 
find  these  three  races  in  Southern  India,  each  having  its  own 
distinct  language.  Our  missionaries  have  long  since  been 
led  into  missionary  work  among  all  three  of  these  races.  We 
have  been  cautioned  here  as  elsewhere  not  to  extend  our 
work  too  widely ;  but  fishermen  might  as  well  be  told,  when 
they  cast  their  net  into  the  deep,  to  be  careful  not  to  let  it  in- 
close more  than  one  or  two  of  the  dozen  different  kinds  of 
fish  which  swim  in  the  waters.  It  is  impossible,  absolutely 
impossible,  for  Christian  men  and  women  to  live  among 
great  surging  masses  of  their  fellow-beings,  and  succeed  in 
winning  some  of  them  to  Christ  while  carefully  avoiding 
others. 

Thus  far  we  have  not  done  as  much  among  the  Telugu 
people  as  we  should  have  done.  They  are  the  most  numer- 
ous of  these  three  southern  races,  numbering  at  present  per- 
haps very  nearly,  if  not  fully,  20,000,000.  They  have  been 
found  thus  far  the  most  accessible  of  the  three  races,  and  it  is 
among  them  that  the  American  Baptists  are  making  such 
wonderful  progress.  Our  own  missionaries  have  been  led  to 
attempt  more  among  the  Kauarese.  We  have  two  stations 
in  the  Nizam's  Territory  among  the  Kauarese,  and  also  work 
among  the  same  people  at  Bangalore.  Last  year  the  atten- 
tion of  our  Church  was  attracted  to  the  important  station  of 
Kolar,  in  the  Province  of  Mysore.  Here  an  excellent  English 
lady,  Miss  Louisa  Anstey,  had  established,  and  Tor  nearly 


458 


INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 


fifteen  years  maintained,  an  orphanage  and  mission  among  the 
Kauarese  people.  Finding  it  difficult  to  continue  the  work 
in  the  new  proportions  which  it  had  assumed,  this  iady 
offered  to  make  the  whole  mission  over  to  us  without  charge 
of  any  kiud.  We  had  no  resources  at  the  time ;  but  en- 


A  TELUGU  FAMILY. 


couraged  by  a  few  kind  friends  whom  I  met  at  Oil  City,  Pa., 
and  trusting  in  God  who  had  led  us  so  wonderfully  hitherto, 
I  cabled  to  India  to  accept  the  offer.  We  have  now  two 
missionaries  stationed  at  Kolar,  a  prosperous  orphanage  with 
several  Christian  settlements  in  the  vicinity,  and  a  Christian 
community  of  over  five  hundred. 


CENTRAL  AND  SOUTH  INDIA.  459 

We  have  done  less  among  the  Tamil  people  in  their  own 
country  than  perhaps  among  any  other  of  the  leading  Indian 
races.  We,  have,  however,  Tamil  work  at  Bangalore,  and 
also  in  the  city  of  Madras,  which  is  practically  a  Tamil  city. 
Our  work  here,  as  elsewhere,  is  inseparable  from  the  work 
we  are  doing  among  the  English-speaking  people.  Every 
year  Tamil  men  are  converted  and  unite  with  us,  and  we 
could  not  give  up  such  work  if  we  tried.  We  have  only 
to  extend  the  work,  strengthen  our  forces,  and  apply  the 
same  methods  which  have  been  found  successful  elsewhere, 
in  order  to  attain  the  measure  of  success  among  the  people 
of  these  three  great  races  which  we  have  witnessed  in  other 
parts  of  the  country. 

Strangely  enough,  we  encounter  the  Tamil  people  speak- 
ing their  own  language  at  the  distant  ports  of  Singapore  and 
Penang,  and  also  at  Rangoon  and  other  towns  in  Burma. 
The  Tamil  language  is  regarded  as  the  most  difficult  of  the 
better  known  languages  of  the  empire.  It  has  a  copious 
literature,  and  challenges  the  best  ability  which  even  our 
most  cultured  missionaries  can  put  forth  before  it  is  mas- 
tered. The  Tamil  people  thrive  better  as  colonists,  or  at 
least  seem  more  willing  to  go  beyond  the  borders  of  India, 
than  most  of  the  other  races.  The  northern  part  of  the  island 
of  Ceylon  is  inhabited  by  people  of  this  race,  and  it  is  from 
Jaffna,  a  mission-station  of  the  American  Board  in  Northern 
Ceylon,  that  we  draw  most  of  our  Tamil  preachers  and  teach- 
ers in  the  Straits  Settlements.  We  have  here  an  indication 
of  the  changing  conditions  which  we  already  begin  to  dis- 
cover as  the  people  of  this  lethargic  East  begin  to  move 
about  more  freely.  Christianity  will  yet  be  carried  to  many 
a  distant  point  by  colonists,  or  by  Eastern  Christians  moving 
from  place  to  place  in  the  ordinary  course  of  their  business 
engagements. 

When  our  Missionary  Committee,  a  few  years  ago,  after 
full  deliberation,  decided  to  support  work  throughout  the 
vast  region  known  at  that  time  as  the  South  India  Confer- 


460  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

ence,  embracing  the  country  as  far  south  as  Madras  and 
Bangalore,  a  responsibility  was  assumed  which  probably  few 
of  those  concerned  were  able  to  appreciate.  It  is  forever 
too  late  for  us  to  retreat,  and  one  of  the  first  great  duties 
which  awaits  our  missionary  authorities  is  that  of  effectually 


A  TAMIL  GROUP. 


strengthening  our  work  throughout  the  whole  of  South  In- 
dia. Eight  or  nine  American  missionaries  should  be  sent 
into  that  region  at  once.  Whether  they  go  among  the  Tamil, 
Kanarese,  or  Telugu  people,  they  will  find  a  most  inviting 
field,  and  can  enter  upon  their  labors  with  assured  hope  of 
success.  But  we  can  not  prosecute  such  a  work  by  following 


CENTRAL  AND  SOUTH  INDIA.  461 

our  present  somewhat  desultory  methods,  and  we  can  not  im- 
prove the  methods  until  we  have  more  men  on  the  field 
adapted  to  such  work,  and  with  their  lives  fully  consecrated 
to  live  and  die  for  India.  Three  or  four  men  should  at  once 
enter  the  Tamil  part  of  the  work.  At  least  three  should  be 
stationed  in  the  Telugu  country,  and  two  or  three  more  be 
stationed  among  the  Kanarese.  If  we  were  able  at  once  to 
strengthen  our  forces  and  extend  our  lines  in  that  region,  we 
would  soon  be  reaping  as  large  a  harvest  among  all  three  of 
these  peoples,  as  any  which  has  rewarded  our  labors  in  other 
parts  of  India. 

The  city  of  Madras  was  at  one  time  the  most  important 
post  held  by  the  English  in  India.  It  has  declined  in  im- 
portance, however,  since  the  rise  of  Calcutta  and  Bombay, 
and,  owing  to  its  lack  of  a  good  harbor,  can  never  hold  a 
first-class  position  as  one  of  the  great  sea- ports  of  the  empire. 
Locally,  however,  it  will  continue  for  all  time  as  the  center 
of  a  very  important  influence.  Christianity  has  secured  a 
stronger  position,  in  some  respects,  in  Madras  than  elsewhere, 
and  the  common  people  of  the  city  have  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  present  century  been  brought  into  closer  con- 
tact with  Europeans  than  perhaps  any  other  natives  in  India, 
with  the  result  that  most  of  them  can  speak,  more  or  less  im- 
perfectly of  course,  the  English  language.  Servants  from 
Madras  are  in  demand  all  over  India,  because  of  their  com- 
mand of  the  English  tongue.  This  close  contact  with  Euro- 
peans, however,  has  not  in  all  respects  proved  salutary.  The 
Madrasi  Christians  do  not  stand  very  high  in  public  esteem, 
chiefly  owing  to  the  bad  habits  contracted  in  former  days  by 
their  ancestors  two  or  even  three  generations  back.  It  is 
only  in  recent  years  that  total  abstinence  has  become  in 
any  degree  popular  in  any  part  of  India,  and  the  Chris- 
tians of  Madras  have  suffered  more  from  intemperance  than 
from  all  other  bad  habits  combined.  This  has  not  only 
given  them  a  somewhat  questionable  character,  but  all  the 
Indian  Christians  have  had  to  carry  a  share  of  their  burden. 


462  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Thousands  of  Europeans  have  no  idea  whatever  of  Chris- 
tian converts  in  India,  except  as  they  come  in  contact  with 
these  house-servants  from  Madras;  and  hence,  when  they 
return  to  Europe,  they  unhesitatingly  affirm  that  all  the 
Christian  converts  in  India  are  notorious  drunkards.  The 
next  generation,  however,  will  probably  be  a  great  improve- 
ment upon  the  present.  In  any  case,  it  will  not  be  much 
longer  true  that  people  preferring  Christian  servants  who  are 
total  abstainers  can  not  find  any  who  are  deserving  of  that  name. 
In  the  preceding  five  chapters  I  have,  in  addition  to  brief 
notices  of  other  fields,  sketched  in  bare  outline  thirteen  vast 
regions,  each  capable  of  furnishing  material  enough  to  make 
a  Christian  empire,  into  which  we  have  been  led  in  the 
providence  of  God,  and  are  fully  committed  to  do  our  share 
of  their  evangelization.  In  five  of  these  thirteen  fields  we 
have,  during  the  past  two  years,  met  with  a  measure  of  suc- 
cess which  is  new,  not  only  in  the  history  of  our  Church,  but 
of  Methodism.  There  is  no  reason  whatever  to  doubt  that 
these  successes  can  be  extended  to  each  one  of  the  thirteen 
fields ;  and  I  regard  it  as  practically  certain  that  within  a 
very  few  years  we  could  report  an  average  of  from  five  to  ten 
thousand  converts  for  each  one  of  these  fields  every  year,  if 
we  only  prosecuted  the  work  with  that  moderate  degree  of 
vigor,  and  with  the  same  careful  organization,  which  have 
characterized  our  work  in  the  fields  where  we  are  now 
reaping  a  rich  harvest.  As  repeatedly  remarked  before,  we 
can  not  withdraw  from  one  of  these  fields;  we  can  not  re- 
trace our  steps  at  any  single  point.  We  are  compelled  to  go 
forward.  Never  did  the  providence  of  God,  working  in 
harmony  with  the  revealed  word,  and  with  the  clear  and 
widely-felt  promptings  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  call  more  clearly 
or  in  louder  tones  to  any  people  to  engage  in  any  specific  line 
of  Christian  duty.  May  God  help  our  beloved  Church  to 
catch  a  clear  view  of  these  open  doors,  and  to  gird  her  loins 
at  once  for  the  gigantic  task  of  entering  in  and  doing  her  full 
share  of  the  great  work  of  saving  India! 


XXXVI. 

LIFE  IN  INDIA. 

FT  VERY  returned  missionary  quickly  discovers  that  his 
1— /  friends  in  the  United  States  are  not  only  surprisingly 
ignorant  with  regard  to  the  kind  of  life  he  has  been  living 
in  his  mission-field,  but  also,  with  few  exceptions,  are  eager 
to  learn  all  manner  of  details  concerning  his  every-day  life 
in  a  country  so  little  known  as  India.  Two  mistakes,  each 
representing  an  opposite  extreme,  are  met  with  everywhere. 
A  few  persons,  and  I  am  happy  to  believe  a  very  few,  have 
heard  stories  about  the  luxury  in  which  missionaries  in 
Asiatic  countries  live,  and  honestly  suppose  that  European 
life  in  such  a  country  as  India  is  one  in  which  the  most 
elaborate  forms,  not  only  of  comfort,  but  of  luxury,  abound 
in  every  home.  A  much  larger  number  fall  into  the  opposite 
error  of  supposing  that  every  heathen  land  is  a  barbarous 
realm,  in  which  few  of  the  ordinary  comforts  of  life  can  be 
found,  and  where  every  true  missionary  must,  in  the  nature 
of  the  case,  lead  a  life  of  extreme  hardship,  if  not  suffering. 
Both  of  these  notions  are  mistaken,  and,  in  the  interest  of  the 
missionary  cause,  need  to  be  corrected.  In  any  and  every 
country  of  the  world  life  is  very  much  what  the  individual 
makes  it.  Hardship  can  be  found  and  endured  if  it  is  sought 
for;  and  luxury,  being  a  product  of  artificial  life,  can  be 
created,  provided  money  is  at  hand  in  sufficient  quantity.  A 
missionary's  life  in  India  can  be  a  very  happy  one.  It  may 
also  be  a  very  laborious  and  trying  one,  but  it  is  by  no  means 
necessary  that  it  should  be  a  life  of  privation  and  hardship. 
In  the  first  place,  it  should  be  understood  from  the  outset 
by  every  European  or  American  going  to  India,  that  he 

463 


464  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

must  live  the  life  of  an  exotic  in  a  strange  and  some- 
what hostile  climate.  After  saying  the  best  that  can  be 
said  for  the  climate  of  India,  taking  the  empire  as  a  whole, 
it  must  be  conceded  that  the  conditions  of  life  are  much 
less  favorable  to  the  average  European  than  is  common  in 
more  northern  latitudes.  Some  foreigners  can  not  live  in 
India  at  all.  Be  the  cause  what  it  may,  their  constitutions 
will  not  endure  the  peculiarities  of  the  Indian  climate. 
With  the  majority,  however,  the  case  is  otherwise.  By  ob- 
serving the  conditions  of  health  peculiar  to  the  country,  and 
by  adapting  himself  to  his  immediate  environment,  an  or- 
dinary European  or  American  may  live  out  his  threescore 
years  and  ten  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  fair  degree  of  health. 
Shortly  after  my  first  arrival  in  India,  I  met  an  English 
gentleman  who  had  been  sixty-one  years  in  the  country, 
without  returning  even  once  on  furlough  to  his  native  land. 
He  died  in  extreme  old  age,  and  I  have  since  known  numer- 
ous instances  of  persons  of  both  sexes  who  lived  to  a  very 
advanced  age  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  The  stranger, 
however,  must  accept  the  fact  from  the  hour  he  sets  foot  in 
the  country,  that  he  is  to  live  the  life  of  an  exotic,  and  must 
accept  all  the  conditions  which  such  a  life  imposes  upon  him 
without  murmuring,  and  without  any  attempt  to  ignore  na- 
ture's inflexible  laws.  He  must  not,  for  instance,  expose  him- 
self to  the  sun  as  he  has  been  accustomed  to  do  in  his  native 
land.  He  must  be  careful  about  his  food,  his  recreation,  his 
hours  of  work,  his  bathing,  and  above  all  his  sleep.  An  or- 
dinary man  needs  more  sleep  in  the  tropics  than  in  the  tem- 
perate zones.  I  have  always  strongly  advised  all  missionaries 
who  can  possibly  do  so,  to  set  apart  an  hour  or  two  in  the 
middle  of  the  day,  through  the  hot  season  at  least,  for  a  sound 
nap.  A  doze  of  fifteen  minutes  will  not  suffice.  For  many 
years  I  have  made  it  a  rule  during  the  hot  season  to  go  to 
bed  on  Sunday  about  twelve  or  one  o'clock,  and  have  a  sleep 
of  two  hours.  When  able  to  secure  this  refreshing  rest,  I 
am  always  as  full  of  life  and  vigor  at  the  beginning  of  the 


LIFE  IN  INDIA.  465 

evening  sermon  as  in  the  early  morning.  It  is  a  bad  habit 
in  any  country  for  a  worker  to  allow  himself  to  be  fagged 
out  until  he  is  compelled  fairly  to  drag  himself  to  his  various 
tasks,  but  in  India  it  is  almost  suicidal. 

The  home  comforts  of  the  average  missionary  are  moder- 
ate and  modest  enough  both  in  quality  and  quantity,  and 
yet  it  often  happens  that  visitors  from  the  home-land  carry 
away  an  impression  with  them  that  the  missionary  is  in  the 
enjoyment  of  a  pretty  full  share  of  the  good  things  which 
belong  to  a  home.  His  house  is  probably  a  large  one.  The 
rooms  are  twice  as  high  as  those  in  an  ordinary  American 
parsonage.  The  doors  and  windows  are  large,  and  as  they 
usually  stand  wide  open,  the  whole  house  seems  to  be  some- 
what on  the  palatial  order;  that  is,  when  measured  by  the 
standard  of  an  ordinary  American  parsonage.  The  furniture 
is  seldom  costly,  but  the  thrifty  housewife  is  apt  to  cover 
over  and  ornament  cheap  articles  in  such  a  way  as  to  give 
the  impression  that  her  house  is  well  furnished.  The  tables 
are  wide,  and  often  ornamented  with  a  profusion  of  flowers, 
which  cost  little  enough,  but  which  sometimes  convey  to  the 
visitor  an  impression  of  somewhat  stylish  living.  Worst  of 
all,  one  or  possibly  two  servants  stand  around  the  table  to 
wait  upon  the  guests,  and  although  these  men,  whether  there 
be  two  or  three  of  them,  do  less  work  and  cost  less  money 
than  one  Irish  or  Swedish  girl  would  do  in  America,  yet  the 
visitor  is  impressed  with  the  idea  that  the  family  are  keep- 
ing up  a  good  deal  of  style.  The  reality,  however,  is  far 
different  from  the  impression  made  upon  the  stranger.  In  a 
book  which  has  had  a  wide  circulation  in  America,  the 
author  tells  of  a  sofa  on  which  he  rested  on  a  certain  oc- 
casion, which  I  happened  afterwards  to  see,  and  which 
proved  to  be  made  of  reeds  and  covered  with  chintz,  the 
whole  affair  not  having  cost  more  than  two  or  three  dollars. 
The  rooms  are  made  large  for  the  sake  of  securing  a  plenti- 
ful supply  of  good  air ;  but  they  contain  less  of  comfort  and 
much  less  expensive  furniture  than  will  be  found  in  an 

30 


466  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

ordinary  American  house.  The  food  on  the  table  is  much 
the  same  as  we  get  in  the  home-land.  During  the  cold  sea- 
son, potatoes,  cabbage,  cauliflower,  and  in  short  all  the  com- 
mon vegetables,  abound.  Beef,  mutton,  and  fowls  can  be 
obtained  in  most  parts  of  the  country.  Butter  is  more  of  a 
luxury  than  at  home,  but  good  bread  can  be  obtained  almost 
everywhere.  The  fruits  of  the  land,  if  not  equal  to  those  of 
America,  at  least  give  abundant  satisfaction  to  every  one 
who  has  lived  any  length  of  time  in  the  country. 

The  diseases  of  India,  which  are  so  much  dreaded  by  the 
friends  of  missionaries,  especially  when  about  to  bid  them 
farewell,  are  some  of  them  formidable  enough,  and  yet  all 
missionaries  who  have  lived  any  length  of  time  in  the  coun- 
try smile  at  the  exaggerated  fears  of  their  friends  in  America 
in  reference  to  their  deadly  character.  It  is  very  true  that 
India  is  the  home  of  the  cholera,  and  that  this  scourge  is 
never  wholly  absent  from  the  country.  In  many  places* six 
months  may  elapse  without  a  single  case  being  reported ;  but 
if  one  or  more  cases  occurred  every  month,  it  would  excite 
no  special  attention.  It  has  been  many  years  since  a  great 
epidemic  of  this  frightful  disease  has  swept  over  the  country, 
such  as  were  frequent  many  years  ago.  At  best,  however,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  cholera  in  its  mildest  forms  is  a 
terrible  enemy;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  our  missionaries 
have  lived  in  constant  contact  with  it  for  a  third  of  a  cen- 
tury without  many  of  them  having  become  its  victims.  So 
far  as  I  can  remember,  four  deaths  have  occurred  among  us 
from  cholera  during  these  years.  Small-pox  generally  as- 
sumes an  epidemic  form  once  every  year,  and  is  sometimes 
very  fatal.  When  it  makes  its  appearance  the  authorities 
always  insist  on  a  general  vaccination;  but  it  seldom  or  never 
creates  anything  like  a  panic.  AVe  live  in  the  midst  of  it 
without  feeling  any  alarm  whatever.  In  passing  along  the 
narrow  streets  I  have  often  seen  a  dozen  cases  in  a  single 
morning,  the  children,  or  perhaps  older  people,  covered  with 
the  eruption  being  seated  on  their  door-steps,  or  perhaps 


LIFE  IN  INDIA.  467 

even  out  in  the  narrow  streets.  During  the  past  quarter  of  a 
century  I  have  known  of  five  cases  in  our  missionary  fami- 
lies, one  of  which  proved  fatal.  Three  of  the  other  cases 
were  very  mild.  Pulmonary  diseases  are  less  fatal  in  India 
than  in  America,  and  yet  more  deaths  have  occurred  among  us 
from  consumption  than  from  both  cholera  and  small-pox. 

But  if  a  few  diseases  are  unusually  prevalent,  we  are  hap- 
pily relieved  of  the  presence  of  two  or  three  of  the  worst 
plagues  of  America.  Scarlet  fever,  diphtheria,  and  spinal 
meningitis,  if  not  wholly  unknown,  are  very  rare  in  India, 
and  our  little  ones  are  thus  exempt  from  what  families  in 
America  find  to  be  a  constant  source  of  danger.  It  would 
no  doubt  be  found,  in  comparison,  that  the  same  number  of 
families  living  in  the  United  States  have  had  more  deaths 
among  the  children  during  the  past  third  of  a  century  from 
these  three  diseases,  than  have  occurred  in  our  mission  fami- 
lies during  the  same  period  from  cholera,  small-pox,  and 
fevers. 

Perhaps  the  most  common  source  of  dread  in  the  minds  of 
our  friends  in  America,  when  thinking  of  the  perils  of  life  in 
India  is  associated  with  the  frightful  stories  they  have  heard 
of  serpents,  scorpions,  centipedes,  and  other  venomous  crea- 
tures. So  many  frightful  stories  have  been  told,  and  so 
active  is  the  popular  appetite  for  the  marvelous,  that  many 
intelligent  persons  believe  that  life  in  India  is  attended  by 
constant  danger  from  the  cobra,  which  is  coiled  up  under 
every  bed,  or  the  scorpion  which  hides  in  e^ery  boot,  or  the 
centipede  which  creeps  under  every  carpet.  It  can  not  be 
denied  that  some  of  the  serpents  of  India  are  extremely  ven- 
omous. Indeed,  the  bite  of  two  or  three  varieties  is  so  fatal 
that  it  is  doubted  by  many  physicians  whether  recovery  ever 
takes  place  after  the  poison  has  been  fairly  injected  into  the 
human  system.  It  is  also  true  that  these  serpents  are  found 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  in  quite  a  number  of  in- 
stances I  have  known  them  to  be  found  in  our  mission- 
houses.  Scorpions  also  abound.  I  once  lived  in  a  house 


468  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

where  they  seemed  to  be  much  more  plentiful  than  spiders, 
and  the  latter  were  numerous  enough.  Centipedes,  too,  can 
be  found  without  much  searching.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  may  comfort  many  friends  when  I  tell  them  that  during  a 
residence  of  thirty-three  years  in  India,  I  have  never  known 
evon  one  European  to  be  bitten  by  a  venomous  serpent.  I 
have  heard  of  two  or  three  cases,  but  they  were  not  well  enough 
attested  to  be  quoted  in  evidence.  Nor  have  I  known,  in  all 
these  years,  of  even  one  instance  of  any  human  being,  Euro- 
pean or  Indian,  being  bitten  or  stung  by  a  centipede.  In 
fact,  I  have  come  to  entertain  grave  doubts  about  the  centi- 
pede, and  sometimes  think  it  is  a  badly  slandered  creature. 
I  remember  well  that  when  I  left  New  York  in  1859,  acting 
on  urgent  advice  given  to  me,  I  bought  some  kind  of  med- 
icine to  be  applied  in  case  of  being  stung  by  centipedes.  As 
for  scorpions,  they  are  plentiful  enough,  and  I  am  compelled 
to  acknowledge  that  both  Europeans  and  natives  are  fre- 
quently stung  by  them.  Their  poison,  however,  is  not  fatal, 
although  their  victims  suffer  acutely,  and  sometimes  for 
many  weeks,  from  its  effects.  The  bite  of  the  cobra,  or  the 
krait,  is  more  fatal  than  that  of  any  serpent  known  in  Amer- 
ica or  Australia,  and  many  thousands  of  the  natives  die  from 
snake-bite  every  year.  The  exemption  of  Europeans  from 
being  bitten  is  probably  owing  to  their  style  of  dress.  Most 
of  the  natives  walk  about  bare-legged,  and  multitudes  of 
them  sleep  on  the  ground,  often  in  the  open  air,  and,  when 
bitten,  the  serpent  has  every  advantage  over  his  victim.  If 
he  is  walking,  his  bare  leg  is  within  easy  reach  of  the  cobra. 
If  sleeping,  his  bare  arm  will  probably  be  thrown  out  un- 
consciously while  he  sleeps,  and  this  act  being  accepted  as  a 
challenge  by  the  cobra,  the  fatal  bite  is  given.  The  mission- 
ary, however,  in  his  comfortable  home,  rarely  ever  thinks  of 
the  venomous  serpents  of  the  country  as  a  source  of  danger. 
They  are  to  him  very  much  like  the  lightning.  It  is  fatal 
enough  in  its  effects,  but  it  does  not  often  strike ;  and  hence 
he  soon  learns  to  be  indifferent  to  it.  The  monster  serpents 


LIFE  IN  INDIA.  469 

which  are  found  in  the  jungles  of  India  are  very  stupid  and 
comparatively  harmless.  None  of  the  large  species  of  ser- 
pents are  ever  poisonous.  In  all  my  Indian  experience  I 
have  only  known  one  instance  of  a  huge  python  attacking  a 
human  being,  and  in  that  case  the  victim  was  a  little  boy, 
eight  or  nine  years  of  age.  In  India,  as  in  Africa,  the  natives 
who  are  most  familiar  with  the  habits  of  these  monsters  have 
very  little  dread  of  them. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  of  all  the  missionaries  who, 
after  having  lived  a  term  of  years  in  India,  have  returned  to 
America,  hardly  one  can  be  found  who  is  not  anxious  to  re- 
turn to  his  Indian  home  and  his  Indian  work.  In  some 
cases  the  exiles,  while  in  India,  long  to  return  to  their  native 
laud,  and  fancy  that  they  could  be  much  more  comfortable 
and  happy  among  the  associations  of  their  youth  aud  in  the 
midst  of  the  comforts  of  Christian  civilization ;  but  a  very 
short  experiment  suffices  to  undeceive  them.  If  the  way  were 
open,  and  health  permitted,  nearly  every  Indian  missionary 
in  the  United  States  would  at  once  hasten  his  departure  for 
the  scene  of  his  former  labors.  No  matter  how  much  he  may 
love  his  native  land,  or  how  strongly  he  may  be  attached  to 
his  country  and  friends,  or  how  highly  he  may  prize  many  of 
the  blessings  which  are  the  peculiar  heritage  of  the  American 
people,  yet  India,  with  its  mission-fields  and  missionary  work, 
has  a  stronger  attraction  for  him  than  any  other  part  of  the 
globe.  I  have  spoken  of  the  missionaries  as  exiles;  but  in  the 
strict  sense  of  that  word  they  do  not  merit  the  title.  To  the 
great  majority  of  them  India  is,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word, 
their  own  country  and  their  own  home.  If  they  are  truly 
called  to  their  work,  if  they  love  it,  and  if  their  hearts'  best 
sympathies  are  bound  up  with  its  interests,  it  becomes  to  them 
not  only  a  land  in  which  they  can  be  happy  and  cheerful,  but 
in  very  deed  the  land  of  their  adoption,  and  the  dearest  spot 
on  the  globe  to  them  during  the  brief  term  of  their  earthly 
pilgrimage. 

Much  controversy  has  been  stirred  up  during  recent  years 


470  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

with  regard  to  the  style  in  which  missionaries  in  countries 
like  India  should  live.  Long  before  the  advent  of  the  Salva- 
tion Army  the  question  had  been  agitated  in  India,  and  not  a 
few  devoted  men  in  different  parts  of  the  country  had  made 
attempts  to  conform  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  simple  style 
in  which  the  mass  of  the  people  live.  This  involved  self-denial 
in  the  most  practical  sense  of  the  word,  and  obliged  the  mis- 
sionary in  every  instance  to  live  a  life,  not  only  of  extreme 
frugality,  but  of  actual  poverty.  So  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  observe,  none  of  these  experiments  has  ever  produced 
any  marked  effect.  They  have  added  to  the  influence  of  the 
individual  in  some  cases,  and  no  doubt  have  done  much  to  im- 
press some  of  the  Hindus  with  the  idea  that  Christianity,  like 
Hinduism,  makes  a  merit  of  self-denial ;  but  so  far  as  winning 
converts  is  concerned,  the  devoted  men  and  women  who  have 
made  such  experiments  have  been  disappointed.  The  best  plan 
for  a  missionary  to  pursue  is  to  adopt  what  the  people  around 
him  will  regard  as  a  natural  style  of  living.  He  is  in  a 
country  where  Europeans  are  often  seen,  and  where  his  man- 
ners and  customs  have  nothing  of  novelty  about  them  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people ;  and  hence  he  will  make  the  best  impression 
if  he  lives  in  the  style  of  an  ordinary  European.  He  should 
cultivate,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  the  virtue  of  Chris- 
tian simplicity,  and  always  be  accessible  to  the  people  of  all 
classes.  He  should  be  the  last  man  to  squander  money  in 
useless  display,  but  at  the  same  time  he  should  avoid  every 
form  of  privation  for  its  own  sake,  and  should  take  the  best 
possible  care  of  the  sacred  temple  in  which  God  calls  him  to 
live  during  his  earthly  career. 

Our  own  experience  has  convinced  us  that  both  the  term 
of  missionary  service,  and  the  life  of  the  individual,  can  be 
prolonged  by  paying  due  attention  to  the  laws  of  health  and 
avoiding  needless  exposure.  The  roof  of  the  mission-house 
should  be  thick  enough  to  protect  the  inmates  from  the  rays 
of  a  sun  which,  through  the  long  tropical  day,  burns  like  a 
furnace  in  the  sky  above  them.  The  walls  should  also  be 


LIFE  IN  INDIA.  471 

thick  enough  to  form  a  protection  from  the  heat,  which  at 
some  seasons  makes  even  the  furniture  inside  hot  to  the  touch. 
The  food  should  be  wholesome  in  quality  and  generous  in 
quantity.  If  at  all  possible,  every  missionary  should  have  a 
furlough  of  a  month  or  six  weeks  during  the  hottest  weather. 
Many  do  not  avail  themselves  of  this  privilege;  but  it  would 
be  a  good  thing  if  all  workers  in  all  lands,  in  addition  to 
their  Sabbath  rest,  could  have  a  holiday  of  some  weeks  once 
a  year.  Among  the  mountains  of  India  are  many  sanitaria 
where  the  climate  is  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  Northern 
States  of  America  during  August  and  September,  and  both 
money  and  labor  can  be  economized  by  sending  missionaries 
to  these  retreats  whenever  the  first  symptoms  of  breaking 
down  begin  to  appear.  It  costs  a  very  great  deal  to  send  a 
missionary  and  his  family  to  India,  and  maintain  them  until 
they  are  acclimated  and  acquire  such  a  use  of  an  Indian  lan- 
guage as  will  equip  them  for  service;  and  when  one  such 
family  is  in  the  field,  and  actually  at  work,  it  is  the  worst 
possible  economy  to  suffer  them  to  break  down  and  leave  the 
country,  instead  of  permitting  them  to  retire  for  a  few  months, 
or  possibly  even  a  year,  to  the  bracing  atmosphere  of  one  of 
the  mountain  stations. 

All  things  considered,  life  in  India  has  many  bright  fea- 
tures, and  perhaps  has  its  pathway  darkened  by  shadows  as 
little  as  would  happen  in  other  lands.  Friendships  formed 
among  both  Europeans  and  Indians  are  strong  and  abiding. 
Home  has  a  quiet  sweetness  which  often  seems  to  be  want- 
ing among  the  bustling,  impatient  people  of  the  Western 
world.  We  enjoy  a  sense  of  freedom  both  indoors  and 
abroad.  Doors  and  windows  stand  wide  open  in  midwinter. 
A  sparrow  is  building  its  nest  on  the  cornice,  a  crow  is  seated 
on  the  window-sill,  flowers  are  blooming  at  every  door  and 
window,  the  veranda  is  one  mass  of  rich  foliage  and  gorgeous 
bloom,  and  the  humble  dwelling  combines  at  once  all  the 
blessings  of  seclusion  and  the  beauties  of  garden-life.  I 
never  revisit  America,  unless  it  be  in  the  summer  months, 


472  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

and  enter  the  close  little  rooms,  with  their  baked  atmosphere 
and  high  temperature,  without  longing  for  the  sweet  and 
pure  air  of  our  Indian  homes.  For  one,  I  have  no  wish  to 
live  in  a  better  country  than  India — at  least  not  until  I  find 
the  country  which  is  out  of  sight — and  I  never  hesitate  to 
assure  young  missionaries  about  to  leave  their  native  land 
that  they  have  much  to  gain,  even  though  they  have  some- 
thing to  lose,  by  making  India  the  land  of  their  adoption. 


Ct)apber  XXXVII. 
INDIAN  MUSIC. 

EUROPEANS  in  India,  almost  without  exception,  hold 
the  music  of  the  natives  in  very  low  esteem.  Many  of 
them,  no  doubt,  if  questioned  on  the  subject,  would  say  that 
it  is  beneath  contempt;  and  yet  the  few  who  have  given  special 
attention  to  it,  together  with  many  missionaries  who  have  had 
the  good  sense  to  use  it  in  connection  with  their  missionary 
work,  will  be  ready  to  testify  that  it  is  by  no  means  without 
merit,  and  in  some  respects  seems  admirably  adapted  to  the 
wants  of  the  people.  One  writer  has  spoken  of  the  first  im- 
pression made  upon  the  foreign  ear  by  Indian  music  as 
"  little  more  than  a  dull  wail  or  a  timeless  jargon,  modulated 
according  to  the  caprice  of  the  performer,  without  harmony 
and  without  passion,  except  as  it  seems  to  afford  relief  to 
some  pent-up  feeling  of  weariness  or  woe,  of  fear  or  despair." 
The  same  writer,  however,  believes  that  this  unfavorable  im- 
pression is  largely  owing  to  a  want  of  acquaintance  with  the 
music,  and  refers  to  the  fact  that  the  musical  instinct  is 
very  prominent  among  the  Indian  people.  He  says  :  "  They 
are  so  universally  fond  of  music  that  they  sing  rather  than 
read  their  sacred  writings ;  they  put  even  their  treatises 
on  mathematics  into  verse,  and  chant  the  very  alphabet 
itself;  they  sing  to  quiet  their  children,  to  entertain  them- 
selves while  traveling,  to  keep  time  with  the  oar,  or  the 
pestle,  or  the  gravel-pounder,  to  the  cadence  of  some  plain- 
tive melody."  Dr.  T.  J.  Scott,  who  has  published  an  inter- 
esting monograph  on  Indian  music,  points  out  that  the  merit 
of  their  music  consists  in  the  fact  that  it  is  nearer  nature 
than  the  more  elaborate  European  system,  and  quotes  the  apt 

473 


474  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

remark :  "  Catch  nature,  comb  her  hair,  and  wash  her  face, 
and  you  have  the  highest  style  of  beauty."  This  writer  main- 
tains that  Indian  music  keeps  close  to  nature's  ideal,  and 
that  all  it  needs  to  make  it  more  attractive  is  to  remove  a  few 
of  its  more  prominent  defects,  and  supply  their  place  by  a 
few  slight  improvements  which  might  easily  be  incorporated 
into  the  system. 

The  educated  people  in  India  are  surprised,  and  naturally 
a  little  indignant,  when  they  hear  foreigners  assuming  that 
their  music  is  merely  the  natural  expression  of  a  rude  and 
uncultured  people,  who  have  never  received  any  musical 
training,  and  who  have  no  idea  of  music  as  a  science.  They 
point  to  the  fact  that  long  before  letters  were  known  in 
England,  Sanskrit  scholars  wrote  able  works  on  music,  and 
that  they  have  inherited  from  a  very  remote  ancestry  a  mu- 
sical system  of  which  they  have  no  need  to  be  ashamed.  It 
is  probable,  and  indeed  almost  certain,  that  the  ancient  In- 
dians were  in  advance  of  the  Greeks  in  their  knowledge  of 
music.  Abundant  references  to  the  flute  in  the  writings  of 
the  ancient  Sanskrit  authors  prove  that  the  people  of  India 
were  familiar  with  the  use  of  that  instrument  before  it  had 
been  introduced  into  Greece,  and  it  is  maintained  that  they 
anticipated  all  other  nations,  except  perhaps  Egypt,  in  the 
use  of  most  of  the  ancient  musical  instruments. 

It  happened  unfortunately,  however,  in  the  case  of  music 
as  in  the  case  of  the  other  sciences,  that  it  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Brahmans,  and  of  course  fared  very  badly  under  their 
treatment.  Their  teaching  was,  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, mixed  up  with  mythological  nonsense,  and  it  is  even 
affirmed  by  some  defenders  of  Indian  music  that  at  an  early 
day  the  subject  was  handed  over  to  the  treatment  of  writers 
who  knew  nothing  whatever  of  either  instrumental  or  vocal 
music.  It  is  maintained,  and  with  some  show  of  probability, 
that  for  centuries  the  singers  were  distinct  from  the  teachers 
of  music,  and  differed  from  them  in  the  fact  that  they  practi- 
cally knew  a  good  deal  about  the  science,  while  the  learned 


INDIAN  MUSIC.  475 

men  who  were  supposed  to  explain  its  principles  were  writing 
ancl  talking  about  things  of  which  they  were  wholly  ignorant. 
To  such  men,  for  instance,  the  Indians  owe  the  tradition  that 
the  popular  tunes  of  the  present  day  were  in  the  first  place 
the  direct  offspring  of  the  gods;  that  the  first  six  of  these 
tunes  were  each  of  them,  as  offspring  of  the  gods,  divine 
beings,  and,  being  males,  were  provided  with,  some  say  five, 
and  some  six,  wives  each.  Each  of  these  wives  represented 
a  tune.  The  offspring  of  these  strange  unions  were  so  many 
additional  tunes,  no  less  than  eight  being  assigned  to  each 
divine  father.  The  mere  statement  of  this  myth  will  suffice 
to  show  how  little  Indian  music  had  to  hope  from  its  ancient 
teachers.  The  advent  of  the  Mohammedans  in  India  was  un- 
fortunate so  far  as  the  cultivation  of  this  science  was  con- 
cerned. The  Mohammedans  dislike  music,  and  many  of 
their  most  learned  men  utterly  repudiate  it  and  regard  it  as 
sinful.  The  Mohammedans  in  India  never  sing  in  connection 
with  their  worship,  and  the  more  pious  among  them  never 
sing  under -any  circumstances.  As  might  be  expected,  they 
are  for  the  most  part  a  gloomy  and  almost  morose  people. 
Some  excuse  may  be  made  for  them  in  the  fact  that  music 
has  been  prostituted  to  such  base  purposes  in  India,  and 
indeed  in  all  the  East,  that  good  men  might  be  excused  for 
regarding  it  as  the  offspring  of  another  power  than  divine. 
But  whatever  the  original  cause  may  have  been,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  Mohammedans  repressed  rather  than  encouraged  the 
study  of  music  in  India,  and  it  made  but  little  progress  from 
their  accession  to  power  until  the  advent  of  the  English. 

The  reason  that  Europeans  so  commonly  fail  to  appreciate 
the  music  of  the  Indian  people  is  owing  to  some  of  its  pecu- 
liarities. Indian  music  differs  from  that  of  Europe  in  the  fol- 
lowing particulars : 

1.  It  has  no  harmony.  The  people  of  India,  until  trained, 
are  utterly  unable  to  detect  the  harmony  in  an  English  tune. 
The  more  cultivated  among  them,  when  questioned  on  the 
subject,  affirm  that  there  is  melody  in  nature,  but  no  har- 


476  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

mony ;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  it  requires  a  very  in- 
tricate argument  or  illustration  to  prove  the  contrary.  They 
are  quite  capable,  however,  of  recognizing  the  harmony  in  an 
English  tune  after  a  short  period  of  training.  The  same  re- 
mark is  true  with  regard  to  the  Chinese.  I  have  heard 
Chinese  youths  singing  a  correct  and  rich  bass  which  they 
had  picked  up  themselves,  simply  by  listening  to  the  sound 
of  a  cabinet  organ  once  a  week.  No  one  had  taught  them 
or  called  their  attention  to  the  difference  in  the  notes,  but 
they  simply  detected  it  themselves,  and  began  to  sing  the  part 
which  suited  them,  and  soon  sang  it  very  well  indeed. 

2.  Indian    musicians   have  no  idea  of  pitch.     A  tuning 
fork  is  an  unknown  instrument,  and  could   not  possibly  be 
used  by  them  if  put  into  their  hands.     Each  singer  is  sup- 
posed to  pitch  his  song  in  the  key  that  suits  him  best,  and  the 
widest  possible  variations  are  allowed.     This  is  of  course  a 
disadvantage  in  some  respects,  but  it  falls  in  with  the  Indian 
idea,    especially    in    solo    singing,    where   the   performer    is 
allowed  a  latitude   which  is  unknown  in  European   music. 
This  leads  to  another  remark,  that  the  singer,  especially  in 
solo  singing,   is  not  expected  to  adhere  rigidly  to  the  tune 
which  may  be  set  to  the  song  he  is  singing.     He  is  supposed 
to  throw  in  as  many  embellishments  and  introduce  as  many 
changes  as  suits  his  fancy,  and  is  also  expected  to  display  a 
good  measure  of  both  vocal  and  physical  vigor  while  singing. 
It  has  been  said  that  to  a  solo  singer  a  tune  is  little  more 
than  what  a  thread  is  to  the  beads  which  are  strung  upon  it. 
It  is  a  mere  line  which  is  supposed  to  receive  the   slurs, 
roulades,    shakes,    turns,    flourishes,    and    other    ornaments 
which  the  performer  attaches  to  it.     When,  however,  a  large 
congregation   sings  a  hymn  to  one  of  these  tunes,  these  ac- 
cretions must  of  course  be  dispensed  with,  and  the  tune  be 
sung  in  its  simplicity. 

3.  Another  peculiarity  of  Indian  music  is  the  custom  of 
keeping  time  by  percussion ;  that  is,  while  some  sing,  one  or 
more  keep  time  by  striking  some  kind  of  cymbals  or  other 


INDIAN  MUSIC.  477 

metallic  instruments  together,  in  a  way  which  the  European 
spectator  at  first  regards  as  mere  barbarous  noise-making,  but 
which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  serves  the  purpose  of  beating 
time  for  the  singers.  Nothing  could  be  more  monotonous, 
and  to  the  average  European  ear  more  distasteful,  than  the 
ceaseless  thumping  upon  the  little  drum  called  the  tom-tom, 
which  is  heard  in  every  city,  town,  and  village  of  India, 
sometimes  keeping  up  its  wearisome  notes  till  an  early  hour 
in  the  morning.  There  is  the  least  possible  resemblance  to 
music  in  the  noise  it  makes,  yet  it  is  serving  a  purpose 
which  can  be  appreciated  by  the  simple  people  who  are  seated 
around  the  group  of  singers. 

4.  The  Indian  chorus  always  precedes  the  first  stanza  of  a 
hymn  instead  of  succeeding  it.     After  the  first  verse,  how- 
ever, has  been  sung,  it  is  customary  to  repeat  the  chorus  at 
the  close  of  each  succeeding  verse.     Most  of  the  verses  also 
are  repeated  at  least  once  in  the  ordinary  course  of  singing ; 
and  this,  with  the  continual  repetition  of  the  chorus,  impresses 
the   European   hearer  at  first  with    a    sense    of  monotony. 
However,  after  he  becomes  acquainted  with  the  meaning  of 
the  words,  and  also  learns  to  understand  the  tune,  it   im- 
presses him  very  differently. 

5.  Writers  who  have  studied  Indian  music  chiefly  from  a 
scientific  point  of  view,  lay  most  stress  upon  the  extraordinary 
number  of  modes  which  it  possesses.     Instead  of  dividing  all 
their  times  into  two  classes,  known  as  major  and  minor,  the 
Hindus  lay  claim  to  sixteen  thousand  modes;  but,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  only  eighty-four  of  these  come  within  the  range 
of  practical  music,  and  these  again  are  reduced  to  thirty-six, 
which  have  been  sufficiently  popularized  to  be  in  general  use. 
The  scale,  with  its  seven  tones,  is  the  same  as  in  English 
music;  but  the  Indians,  as  is  their  wont,  limit  it  to  five  or 
even  a  smaller  number,  if  it  suits  them.     It  is  considered  no 
blemish  for  a  singer  to  lengthen  or  shorten  a  note,  as  the 
case   may  be,  but  on  the  other  hand  it  is   regarded  as  an 
evidence  of  his  skill  or  superior  knowledge  of  music.     The 


478  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

seven  notes  of  the  scale  are  written  thus:    sa,  ri,  ga,  ma,  pa, 
dha,  and  ui. 

6.  In  Indian  music  the  notes  are  lengthened  or  shortened 
according  to  the  character  of  the  vowel  which  they  represent 
in  the  poetry.     I  quote  from  the  Preface  of  the  North  India 
Tune-book,  by  Mrs.  J.  D.  Bate,  of  Allahabad:     "In  Hindu 
poetry  the  number  and  accent  of  the  syllables  are  not  the 
standard  of  accuracy  as  they  are  in  English  poetry,  but  the 
number  and  value  of  them,  which  depends  upon  whether  the 
vowels  are  long  or  short.     A  short  vowel  reckons  as  one, 
and  a  long  vowel  as  two,  in  counting  the  number  of  beats, 
or  instants,  required   to   make  up  the  line.     The   inherent 
vowel  must  always  be  counted,  and  a  short  vowel  before  a 
compound  consonant  is  considered  long.     In  singing,  a  close 
correspondence  must  exist  between  the  long  vowels  in  the 
poetry  and  the  long  notes  in  the  music.     For  instance,  in  f 
time  the  long  vowels  are  sung  to  the  crotchets,  and  the  short 
vowels  to  the  quavers." 

7.  The  utmost  freedom  is  used  in  adapting  the  hymn  to 
the  necessities  of  the  tune.     A  vowel  is  often  inserted  be- 
tween two  consonants,  or  a  compound  letter  is  divided  into 
its  primary  parts,  and  a  vowel  supplied  to  each  consonant,  or 
a  vowel  may  be  added  to  a  word,  or  stricken  out,  if  it  is  so 
desired.      Any  unimportant  word   may  also  be  omitted;  or, 
on  the  other  hand,  inserted,  if  the   necessities  of  the  music 
seem  to  call  for  it.     This  makes  the  language  of  the  hymn 
often  unintelligible  to  those  who  have  not  a  very  familiar 
use  of  the  language.     To  give  an  illustration,  if  we  were  to 
adapt  this  kind  of  music  to  an  English  hymn,  the  familiar  line, 

"  From  all  that  dwell  below  the  skies," 
would  appear  somewhat  like  the  following: 

"Furrom  all  that  dawell  below  sakies." 

Changes    of  this    kind    are    introduced    with    the     utmost 
freedom. 

For  many  years   the   opinion    prevailed    in    India   that 


INDIAN  MUSIC.  479 

Indian  tunes  could  not  be  harmonized  successfully;  but  Mrs. 
Emma  Moore  Scott,  of  Muttra,  enjoys  the  distinction  of  hav- 
ing, after  long  and  painstaking  effort,  accomplished  this  dif- 
ficult task.  A  few  years  ago  she  published  a  collection  of 
popular  Indian  tunes  harmonized  in  the  European  style; 
and,  although  there  was  not  an  immediate  demand  for  the 
book,  it  slowly  worked  its  way,  and  a  new  edition  is  now 
called  for.  It  seems  very  probable  that  this  experiment  will 
not  only  prove  successful  as  a  publishing  venture,  but  that 
it  will  prove  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the  cultivation 
of  Indian  music,  especially  for  use  in  Christian  worship.  I 
have  myself  heard  the  harmonized  tunes  sung  fairly  well  by 
Hindustani  congregations  of  very  moderate  culture. 

For  some  time  past  there  has  been  a  diversity  of  opinion 
among  missionaries  concerning  the  wisdom  or  otherwise  of 
using  Indian  tunes  in  Christian  worship.  We  are  all  more 
or  less  in  unconscious  bondage  to  habits  and  tastes  which 
have  been  woven  into  the  very  fiber  of  our  being  from  child- 
hood up,  and  none  of  these  takes  so  deep  a  hold  upon  us  as 
those  which  are  rooted  in  our  religious  nature.  Devout  per- 
sons, no  matter  how  intelligent,  find  it  very  hard  to  tolerate 
anything  in  connection  with  their  worship  which  is  not  in 
keeping  with  their  traditional  notions,  and  especially  with 
what  seems  to  them  religious  good  taste  and  propriety.  When 
Bishop  Kingsley  visited  India  in  1869,  I  asked  a  few  native 
Christians  to  come  in  one  evening  with  a  few  of  their  rude 
musical  instruments,  and  let  him  hear  some  Indian  music. 
They  sang  simple  Christian  hymns,  and  played  on  their  in- 
struments with  great  vigor  and  enthusiasm.  The  whole 
spectacle  was  interesting  enough  in  its  way,  but  as  unlike 
anything  bearing  the  name  of  Christian  worship  as  could  well 
be  imagined.  When  the  singers  retired,  I  asked  the  good 
Bishop  if  he  thought  it  would  be  wise  for  us  to  introduce 
that  kind  of  instrumental  music  into  our  public  services.  He 
replied  in  the  negative,  with  an  emphasis  which  was  not  only 
decided  but  amusing,  and  deprecated  in  the  strongest  Ian- 


480  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

guage  any  step  on  our  part  which  should  degrade  Christian 
worship  to  so  low  a  level.  I  was  not  surprised  to  hear  him 
speak  in  this  way,  nor  is  it  probable  that  any  one  of  a  thou- 
saud  intelligent  Christians  from  America,  having  listened  to 
the  singing  and  witnessed  the  playing,  would  have  given  a 
different  answer.  And  yet,  although  I  did  not  attempt  to 
argue  the  question  with  the  Bishop,  I  lield  a  very  different 
opinion.  A  pair  of  rude  brass  cymbals  and  a  little  drum 
called  a  "tom-tom,"  are  to  the  simple  villagers  of  India  all 
that  a  ponderous  organ  is  to  the  refined  worshipers  in  our 
city  churches.  We  may  smile,  or  wronder,  or  feel  disgusted, 
but  the  fact  remains  that  music  is  simply  a  vehicle  for  the 
expression  of  thought  and  feeling  on  the  part  of  worshipers, 
and  that  which  serves  its  purpose  most  effectually  is  the  best 
vehicle  for  the  persons  concerned. 

Methodists,  of  all  people,  should  be  the  last  to  find  fault 
with  the  people  of  any  nation  appropriating  for  the  purpose 
of  Christian  song  such  tunes  as  they  find  popularized  among 
the  people.  More  than  any  other  people  in  the  modern 
world,  the  Methodists  are  responsible  for  the  free  use  \vhich 
is  now  made  in  public  worship  everywhere,  of  tunes  which  in 
former  years  were  wholly  given  up  to  the  profane  and 
worldly.  If  the  people  of  India  prefer  their  own  simple — 
or,  if  the  reader  pleases,  uncouth — tunes,  by  all  means  let 
them  use  them.  Let  them  use  that  which  they  like  best.  If 
they  prefer  to  ride  in  their  rough,  jolting  carts,  rather  than 
in  high-topped  and  frail-looking  American  buggies,  let  them 
have  their  carts.  Whose  business  is  it? 

The  question  is  not  yet  settled  by  any  means ;  but  beyond 
a  doubt  the  party  in  favor  of  using  native  music  is  gaining 
ground.  In  fact,  the  question  will  take  itself  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  foreign  missionaries  in  the  natural  course  of 
events ;  for  the  people  will  sing  when  they  once  possess  the 
joy  of  the  Lord,  and  nothing  can  restrain  them ;  and  when 
they  sing  they  will  give  expression  to  their  religious  joy  and 
hope  in  the  way  that  is  most  natural  to  them,  without  much 


INDIAN  MUSIC.  481 

regard  to  the  tastes  or  feelings  of  other  people.  At  present 
the  tendency  seems  to  be  to  use  European  tunes  in  the  cities 
and  large  towns,  where  the  native  Christians  are  brought  in 
contact  with  Europeans;  but  in  the  more  remote  country 
districts  the  Indian  music  is  more  and  more  found  in  the 
ascendant.  The  popular  airs  commonly  known  in  recent 
years  as  "Sankey  tunes"  are  the  general  favorites  among  the 
better  educated  Indian  Christians.  In  some  parts  of  the 
country  the  missionaries  have  succeeded  thus  far  in  prevent- 
ing the  use  of  Indian  tunes  altogether;  but  this  is  probably 
owing  more  to  the  fact  that  the  people  in  those  regions 
have  very  few  good  tunes  for  any  purpose,  than  to  the  ef- 
forts of  the  missionaries  to  confine  the  singing  to  English 
tunes. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  many  of  the  current  Indian 
tunes  will  be  materially  improved  as  they  are  brought  into 
popular  use  in  connection  with  Christian  worship.  None 
but  Christians  can  breathe  both  life  and  spirit  into  music, 
and  when  the  people  of  India,  not  only  by  thousands  but  by 
millions,  begin  to  sing  the  praises  of  God  to  the  simple  tunes 
with  which  their  forefathers  were  familiar  ages  ago,  they 
will  almost  certainly  put  new  life  into  them,  and  perfect 
them  from  time  to  time  to  such  an  extent  that  they  will  be- 
come practically  new.  In  other  words,  Indian  music  will 
probably  enter  upon  a  stage  of  development  such  as  it  has 
never  known,  and  a  century  or  two  hence  may  attain  a  per- 
fection which  its  critics  of  the  present  day  regard  as  altogether 
impossible. 

I  append  two  Indian  tunes  as  specimens  of  those  in  most 
common  use  among  Christians.  Most  tunes  of  Hindu  origin 
are  called  Bhajans,  while  those  borrowed  from  the  Moham- 
medans are  called  Ghazals.  A  specimen  of  each  class  is 
given  on  the  next  page.  I  have  often  heard  these  two  fa- 
miliar hymns  sung  with  very  great  religious  power,  by  de- 
vout congregations,  both  in  remote  country  villages  and 

among  the  more  cultured  Christians  of  the  cities. 

31 


482 


INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 


I>KI:I.I  in:. 


BHAJAN. 

Moilerate  time. 


Kau-na    ka-re     mo -hi        pa-  ra    tu-ma  bi-na  kau-na  ka- 


re    mo  -  hi  Mo  -  hi     pa  -  ra     mo  -  hi     pa  -  ra,    mo  -  hi 

i£  itr.Mt  \i  v 


pa  -  ra.    Kau  na    ka  -  re    mo  -  hi       pa  -  ra     Tu  -  ma    Iti  -  na 

Fine. 

:b     ,     _-K — Mrr—  =r. _^_e=_        r=  .  »..  P"!     ix    ">: 


5^£ 


kau  -  na    ka  -  re      mo  -  hi      Tu  -  tl     na  -  wa    tu  -  fa  -  na   hai 
sr\  l).  s. 


I 


bha  -  rl,  tu-fa  -  na  hai  bha-rl,    Kai-se  main  u-  tu-run     pa  -  ra 

Freely  translated,  this  very  simple  little  song  begins  as 
follows : 

Refrain — Who,  save  Thee,  can  land  me  safely  on  the  other  shore  ? 
First  Verse — My  boat  is  broken,  the  storm  is  wild ;  how  can  I  reach 
the  other  shore? 

GHAZAL. 


EEj^SEESEi 


-fv 


f    f 


I    I 


Ka-ra  -  ta  hun  tujh  se    il  -  ti  -  ja  Yl-shu  Ma-slh  fa  -  ri  -  ya  -  da  sun, 

Fin?. 


S 


I 


Qu-ra  -  ba  -  na  te  -  re    na  -  ma  ke   Yi-shu  Ma-slh  fa  -  ri  -  ya  -  da  sun. 

Unto  Thee  do  I  make  my  entreaty; 

O  Jesus  Christ,  hear  my  complaint. 
Expiation  is  through  thy  name; 

O  Jesus  Christ,  hear  my  complaint. 


Chapter  XXXYIII. 
MALAYSIA. 

THE  name  Malaysia  is  not  often  found  in  standard  geog- 
raphies, and  I  can  remember  having  seen  it  only  once 
on  a  map.  The  region  which  it  designates  has  neither 
natural  nor  political  boundaries  to  separate  it  from  ad- 
jacent countries;  hence  it  is  only  in  recent  years  that  an 
attempt  has  been  made  to  give  it  a  distinctive  name.  It 
is  the  region  inhabited  by  the  Malay  race  and  its  many 
branches,  and  includes  the  Malay  Peninsula,  together  with 
the  larger  half  of  the  islands  of  the  Eastern  Archipelago. 
The  term  Malaya  is  frequently  applied  to  this  region ;  but  as 
Asiatic  colonists  are  rapidly  settling  on  both  the  islands  and 
main-land,  and  in  some  sections  intermarrying  freely  with  the 
Malay  people,  the  term  Malaysia  seems  more  appropriate, 
both  with  regard  to  the  present  and  future  population.  The 
following  pages  are  taken,  with  slight  alterations,  from  an 
article  written  by  me  some  years  ago,  and  published  in  the 
Methodist  Review  of  March,  1887. 

The  average  American  finds  it  hard  to  forgive  the  Euro- 
pean who  fails  to  appreciate  the  immense  extent  of  territory 
embraced  in  the  Great  Republic;  but  when  he  himself  passes 
from  Europe  over  to  Asia,  he  forgets  in  turn  how  very  much 
larger  that  vast  continent  is  than  his  own  America.  Let  us 
suppose,  for  instance,  that  the  Philippine  Islands  are  men- 
tioned. He  knows  that  there  is  such  a  group  to  the  south- 
east of  Asia,  and  that  Manilla  cigars  and  a  valuable  kind  of 
hemp  are  produced  there ;  but  he  thinks  of  the  islands  as  he 
does  of  the  Bahamas,  a  few  little  green  points  rising  out  of  the 
sea — islets,  rather  than  islands,  and  of  little  or  no  importance 

483 


484 


INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 


to  the  world  at  large.  He  is  as  ignorant  as  a  Chinaman  of 
the  fact  that  one  of  these  islands  is  as  large  as  the  State  of 
Ohio,  that  a  second  is  as  large  as  Indiana,  and  that  the  whole 
group  contains  an  area  almost  exactly  equal  to  that  of  Italy, 
and  capable  of  sustaining,  without  crowding,  a  population  of 
thirty  millions.  The  Bahamas  might  be  added  to,  or  sub- 
tracted from,  the  Philippines  without  making  any  appreciable 
difference  in  the  extent  of  the  group. 

As  with  the  Philippines,  so  with  the  vast  archipelago  of 
which  they  form  a  part.  Lying  between  Asia  and  Australia, 
and  covering  a  sea  area  thirteen  hundred  miles  wide  by  four 
thousand  in  length,  it  is  the  most  wonderful  island  region  of 
the  globe.  After  Australia  (itself  a  continent),  the  largest  and 
second  largest  islands  in  the  world  are  found  there — New 
Guinea  and  Borneo,  the  former  nearly  one  and  one-half  times 
as  large  as  France,  and  the  latter  as  large  as  the  whole  Aus- 
trian Empire.  The  land  area  of  the  whole  group  exceeds 
one  million  square  miles,  and  this  magnificent  belt  of  islands 
is  certainly  entitled  to  take  rank  as  one  of  the  grand  divis- 
ions of  the  globe,  instead  of  a  collection  of  barbarous  islets 
in  an  almost  unknown  sea.  In  order  to  impress  his  English 
readers  with  a  true  conception  of  the  vast  extent  of  some  of 
these  islands,  Mr.  Wallace,  in  his  work  on  the  Malay  Archi- 
pelago, published  a  small  map  of  Borneo,  with  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  and  all  their  interjacent  waters,  put  down  in  its 
center,  where  they  were  wholly  surrounded  by  a  sea  of  for- 
ests. This  island  has  a  coast-line  of  three  thousand  miles, 
omitting  the  smaller  bays  and  headlands,  while  New  Guinea, 
which  is  both  larger  and  more  irregular  in  shape,  has  a  coast- 
line which,  though  not  yet  accurately  measured,  is  longer 
very  considerably. 

These  islands,  though  constituting  one  group  on  the  map, 
are  divided  ethnographically  into  two  distinct  families,  the 
Malayan  and  the  Papuan.  The  great  islands  of  Sumatra, 
Java,  and  Borneo  are  separated  from  the  Asiatic  continent 
by  seas  so  shallow  that  ships  can  anchor  almost  anywhere  in 


MALA  YSIA.  485 

them;  and  it  seems  extremely  probable  that,  at  a  not  very 
remote  period  of  the  earth's  history,  these  islands  formed  a 
part  of  the  main-land.  In  like  manner  the  Philippines,  at 
probably  an  earlier  period,  were  detached  from  the  continent 
by  a  depression  of  the  intervening  surface.  In  precisely  the 
same  way  New  Guinea  and  other  islands  near  the  Australian 
coast  were  probably  separated  from  the  Australian  main-land  ; 
and  thus  we  have  in  the  great  island  group  an  Asiatic  and 
an  Australian  section.  The  productions  of  the  two  groups 
strikingly  sustain  this  theory  of  the  origin  of  this  division. 
The  animals  and  birds  found  in  Sumatra,  Java,  and  Borneo 
are  the  same  as  those  found  in  the  Malay  Peninsula,  or  with 
differences  no  more  marked  than  is  common  in  widely  sepa- 
rated regions  on  the  main-land.  In  New  Guinea  and  adjacent 
islands,  on  the  other  hand,  the  peculiar  marks  of  an  Aus- 
tralian origin  are  found  everywhere.  The  marsupial  animals, 
for  which  Australia  is  famous — the  honey-suckers,  lories, 
brush-turkeys,  and  other  birds  which  have  been  supposed  to 
belong  only  to  Australia — are  found  on  these  islands,  and  are 
never  found  beyond  the  deep  straits  which  separate  them 
from  the  Asiatic  group,  although  so  near  to  them.  Borneo  is 
not  more  unlike  Australia  than  Java  is  unlike  New  Guinea, 
although  in  point  of  climate  and  general  character  the  two 
islands  are  very  much  alike. 

The  inhabitants  of  these  two  groups  of  islands  differ  no 
less  unmistakably  than  their  animals  and  birds.  On  the  west 
we  have  the  Malays,  and  on  the  east  the  Papuans ;  and  al- 
though many  tribes  and  subdivisions  may  be  found  among 
both  these  ethnic  families,  the  general  distinction  is  every- 
where easily  recognizable.  The  Malay  is  an  Asiatic,  and 
the  Papuan  is  a  Polynesian.  The  Malay  is  short  of  stature, 
with  a  reddish-brown  complexion,  beardless  face,  straight  black 
hair,  and  broad  and  rather  flat  face.  The  Papuan  is  taller, 
with  black  frizzly  hair  and  beard,  dark  and  sometimes  black 
complexion,  with  thin  lips  and  broad  nostrils,  and  looks  as 
little  like  a  Malay  as  an  African  resembles  an  American 


486  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

Indian.  In  natural  ability  he  is  probably  more  than  equal  to 
his  Malay  neighbor;  but  the  latter  has  had  the  advantage  of 
a  longer  contact  with  civilization,  and  for  the  present,  at  least, 
stands  higher  in  the  estimation  of  the  outside  world  than  the 
Papuan.  The  Malays  inhabit,  or  at  least  are  the  predom- 
inant race  in,  the  Malay  Peninsula,  Sumatra,  Java,  Borneo, 
Celebes,  the  Philippines,  and  part  of  the  Moluccas ;  and  these 
islands,  together  with  the  peninsula,  which  is  itself  practically 
an  island,  constitute  Malaysia  proper. 

But  even  when  thus  restricted,  the  Malay  has  still  a 
splendid  home  for  his  race.  The  land  area  embraced  within 
its  boundaries  amounts  to  more  than  700,000  square  miles. 
The  soil  is  nearly  all  productive,  while  the  mineral  resources 
are  extremely  valuable.  The  peninsula  is  the  Golden  Cher- 
sonese of  which  Milton  sings,  and  from  the  remotest  antiquity 
it  has  been  famous  for  its  gold  and  gems.  Its  mountains  are 
stored  with  tin  enough  to  supply  the  whole  world.  Sumatra 
is  the  richest  of  the  islands  in  minerals;  but,  like  all  the 
large  islands  except  Java,  it  has  been  but  slightly  explored, 
and  the  extent  of  its  mineral  wealth  is  imperfectly  known. 
Borneo  is  known  to  be  rich  in  minerals,  and  clothed  in  for- 
ests of  valuable  timber,  while  rumors  of  gold  deposits,  and 
of  copper  and  iron,  and  last,  but  perhaps  most  valuable  of  all, 
of  vast  coal-beds,  are  exciting  the  interest  and  cupidity  of 
the  ever-increasing  swarms  of  adventurers  who  wander  up 
and  down  the  earth.  Throughout  the  whole  region,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  small  tracts,  the  land  is  fertile,  and  adapted 
to  the  growth  of  all  kinds  of  tropical  products.  The  forests 
are  rich  in  timber,  the  gardens  in  spices,  the  orchards  in 
fruits,  the  fields  in  the  many  forms  of  tropical  food  produc- 
tions, and  the  whole  region  capable,  if  properly  cultivated,  of 
sustaining  a  vast  population.  If  peopled  as  densely  as  Java 
is  at  present,  Borneo  alone  would  contain  a  population  of 
more  than  125,000,000  souls,  and  the  whole  region  of  Ma- 
laysia would  contain  not  less  than  250,000,000.  Or,  if  it  be 
objected  that  Java  is  an  exceptionally  rich  island,  and  hence 


.  MALAYSIA.  487 

the  estimate  an  unfair  one,  let  the  sleepy  old  island  of  Sicily 
be  taken  as  the  standard  of  comparison,  and  the  result,  if  not 
so  amazing,  is  still  striking  enough.  If  peopled  only  as 
densely  as  Sicily  is  at  the  present  day,  Borneo  would  still 
have  a  population  equal  to  that  of  the  United  States,  while 
the  whole  Malaysian  region  would  have  four  times  as  many 
inhabitants  as  France.  It  is  not  necessary,  however,  to  make 
any  reduction  of  the  higher  estimate.  Java,  although  sus- 
taining a  large  population,  is  not  half  so  densely  populated 
as  some  portions  of  the  valley  of  the  Ganges;  and  her  20,- 
000,000  will  no  doubt  become  30,000,000  at  a  not  remote 
day,  while  the  less  favored  islands  around  her  will  advance 
to  a  position  at  least  equal  to  that  which  it  now  occupies. 

The  capacity  of  tropical  lauds  for  sustaining  vast  popu- 
lations of  easy-going  people  is  not  easily  appreciated  by  those 
who  are  familiar  only  with  the  highly  artificial  life  of  Europe 
and  America.  In  some  of  these  islands  a  single  sago-palm 
yields  enough  food  to  support  a  man  for  a  year,  and  the  tree 
can  be  purchased  and  its  pulp  turned  into  food  for  the  sum  of 
three  dollars.  In  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Singapore  tapi- 
oca is  found  growing  wild  by  the  roadside,  and  its  roots  are 
so  cheap  in  the  market  that  many  planters  have  abandoned 
its  cultivation  as  no  longer  remunerative.  Rice  is  very  in- 
differently cultivated  by  the  partially  civilized  natives  of  all 
the  interior  regions;  but  both  soil  and  climate  favor  its 
growth,  and  a  rice-producing  country  can  support  a  much 
larger  population  than  one  producing  maize  or  wheat.  But 
it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  people  who  are  thus  boun- 
tifully fed  get  only  food  enough  from  the  soil  to  sustain  life. 
They  can  make  all  the  nations  of  the  world  tributary  to 
them ;  and  their  spices  and  their  fruits,  their  sugar,  coffee, 
cocoa,  hemp,  tobacco,  and  other  products,  will  give  them 
ample  means  with  which  to  purchase  all  the  appliances  of 
civilization  which  an  advancing  people  need.  If  the  poor 
cultivator  can  purchase  his  daily  food  for  a  nominal  price, 
he  can  also  find  means  for  surrounding  himself  with  much 


488  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

of  the  world's  luxuries.  On  the  island  of  Singapore  a  sea- 
son's yield  of  a  single  duriau-tree,  a  favorite  fruit,  is  sold  for 
from  fifty  to  seventy-five  dollars  while  yet  the  fruit  is  half- 
grown  upon  the  tree. 

The  fact  that  nearly  all  this  vast  region  is  but  sparsely 
populated  is  usually  accepted  as  a  proof  that  there  is  some 
serious  drawback  either  in  climate  or  soil,  or  in  liability  to 
pestilence  or  earthquakes.  A  long  volcanic  belt  extends 
through  the  middle  of  the  archipelago,  from  Sumatra  to  the 
Philippines ;  but  the  frequent  and  violent  earthquakes  which 
occur  in  the  vicinity  of  this  volcanic  region  do  not  seem  per- 
ceptibly to  hinder  the  growth  of  the  population.  People 
soon  learn  not  to  be  alarmed  about  such  things,  and  Java, 
which  is  more  scourged  by  earthquakes  than  any  other  part 
of  the  world,  is  not  only  the  most  prosperous  of  all  the 
islands,  but  the  richest  tropical  island  on  the  globe ;  while 
Borneo,  in  which  volcanoes  and  earthquakes  are  unknown, 
is  sparsely  settled,  and  by  a  people  in  a  low  state  of  civiliza- 
tion. As  to  climate,  this  whole  region  is  as  healthful  as  the 
West  Indies,  and  much  more  so  than  Central  America. 
Here,  as  everywhere  else  in  the  tropics,  low,  marshy  lands 
occasion  malarial  fevers,  sometimes  of  a  malignant  character, 
but  not  worse  in  any  respect  than  is  common  in  similar  re- 
gions in  both  the  New  and  Old  Worlds.  The  temperature 
is  much  more  equable  than  in  regions  farther  from  the 
equator,  and  the  heat  is  never  so  oppressive  as  during  more 
than  half  the  year  in  Northern  India.  In  some  places 
Europeans — especially  free  livers — will  be  apt  to  suffer  from 
fevers ;  but,  taking  the  whole  region  together,  no  part  of  the 
tropics  will  be  found  more  friendly  to  the  European  consti- 
tution. 

The  true  explanation,  both  of  the  sparseness  of  the  pop- 
ulation and  the  backwardness  of  the  people  in  civilization,  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  the  Malays  are  a  race  of  pirates,  as 
were  our  own  forefathers ;  and  for  centuries  past  they  have 
not  only  been  averse  to  the  quiet  ways  of  civilized  life  them- 


MALA  YSIA.  489 

selves,  but  have  hovered  around  the  coasts  of  their  beautiful 
islands  like  so  many  armed  blockaders,  sealing  up  every  har- 
bor against  the  entrance  of  better  and  more  peaceful  people. 
The  advent  of  the  Europeans  into  the  archipelago  did  not 
put  an  end  to  the  depredations  of  these  pirates,  partly  be- 
cause at  first  the  Europeans  were  little  more  than  pirates 
themselves,  and  at  a  later  period  they  did  not  care  to  follow 
the  little  praus  of  the  pirates  into  regions  where  they  had  no 
interests  at  stake,  and  no  hopes  of  opening  up  a  profitable 
commerce.  Only  recently  have  determined  and  successful 
efforts  been  made  to  put  down  piracy  throughout  the  archi- 
pelago, and  now  for  the  first  time  this  fair  region  is  begin- 
ning to  have  a  chance  to  take  the  place  in  the  world  to 
which  its  natural  advantages  entitle  it.  Added  to  the  scourge 
of  piracy  on  the  coast  has  been  the  curse  of  interminable 
strife  and  misrule  in  the  interior.  Rival  chiefs  have  been 
engaged  in  endless  tribal  wars,  and  with  their  jealousies  and 
strife  have  stood  in  the  way  of  civilization.  Wherever  a 
stable  government  has  been  established,  with  assured  pro- 
tection to  all  races  and  all  creeds,  thither  settlers  have 
flocked  in  vast  crowds,  and  have  quickly  demonstrated  that 
these  rich  and  beautiful  islands  only  need  the  protection  of 
a  strong  government  to  make  them  the  homes  of  prosperous 
and  mighty  nations.  At  three  points  on  the  peninsula,  and 
on  the  little  island  of  Singapore,  the  English  have  estab- 
lished settlements,  the  whole  being  under  the  authority  of  a 
colonial  Governor  with  a  Legislative  Council.  The  result  is, 
that  within  the  limits  of  these  four  settlements  there  is  al- 
ready a  settled  and  exceedingly  prosperous  population,  num- 
bering no  less  than  four  hundred  to  the  square  mile.  In 
the  adjacent  Malay  territory,  equally  productive  and  equally 
attractive  in  its  natural  advantages,  the  population  is  esti- 
mated at  but  little  more  than  nine  to  the  square  mile.  The 
prosperity  of  Java  under  the  firm  but  somewhat  rough  hand 
of  the  Dutch  has  already  been  referred  to,  and  similar  re- 
sults are  very  rapidly  developing  themselves  in  Sarawak, 


490  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

where  the  nephew  and  successor  of  the  famous  Rajah  Brooke 
is  building  up  a  strong  and  prosperous  Malay  State. 

If  it  were  certain  that  the  dark  days  of  Malaysia  are 
over,  and  a  bright  future  assured  to  her,  it  would  become  at 
once  a  most  interesting  question  to  determine  who  and  what 
the  people  are  to  be  who  shall  possess  this  rich  heritage. 
Those  who  know  the  Malays  are  not  sanguine  that,  as  a  race, 
they  will  ever  prove  worthy  of  so  magnificent  an  oppor- 
tunity as  would  then  be  set  before  them,  and  it  is  perhaps 
want  of  faith  in  them,  rather  than  want  of  appreciation  of 
their  island  home,  which  leads  many  thoughtful  persons  to 
speak  doubtingly  of  the  future  of  the  archipelago.  For 
the  present  the  Malays  are  in  possession,  and  in  discussing 
the  future  of  the  islands  their  character  becomes  a  leading 
and  most  important  factor  in  the  problem. 

Not  very  many  years  ago  our  children  were  taught  in 
their  school  geographies  that  the  human  race  was  divided 
into  five  great  families,  among  whom  the  Malay  and  the 
American  Indian  occupied  the  fourth  and  fifth  places.  The 
Chinaman  was  the  typical  Mongolian,  and  no  affinity  was 
suspected  between  him  and  the  Malay.  This  system  of 
classification  was  given  up  years  ago;  but  ethnologists  have 
been  slow  in  assigning  a  new  place  to  the  Malay  people. 
Tradition  traces  their  origin  back  to  a  tribe  that  lived  on 
the  north  coast  of  Sumatra,  and  migrated  thence  to  the  main- 
land near  the  site  of  Malacca,  and  it  is  generally  admitted 
that  the  Malay  language  is  spoken  in  greater  purity  there  than 
in  any  other  part  of  the  archipelago.  But  beyond  this 
slight  trace  nothing  else  has  been  discovered  about  their 
origin,  and  very  little  is  known  of  their  history.  They  are 
scattered  very  widely,  and  speak  many  languages  and  dia- 
lects, and  different  tribes  are  often  mistaken  for  members  of 
distinct  races;  but  they  are  one  as  the  American  Indians, 
while  differing  as  those  differ  in  language  and  tribal  peculiari- 
ties. The  agent  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  at 
Singapore  sells  Scriptures  in  thirty-seven  different  languages, 


MALA  YSIA.  493 

most  of  which  are  spoken  on  the  islands  of  the  archipelago. 
While  these  numerous  tribes  and  dialects  are  found  scattered 
over  the  islands,  the  mass  of  the  people  may  be  separated  into 
four  great  divisions :  1.  The  typical  Malays,  who  inhabit  the 
peninsula  and  the  coast  regions  of  Sumatra  and  Borneo; 
2.  The  Javanese,  who  inhabit  Java  and  parts  of  the  numer- 
ous adjacent  islands;  3.  The  Bugis,  who  inhabit  the  larger 
portion  of  Celebes;  and,  4.  The  Tagalas,  who  inhabit  the 
Philippine  Islands.  These  four  divisions  are  often  spoken 
of  as  so  many  different  races ;  but  they  are  all  members  of 
the  same  ethnic  family,  and  they  are  themselves  marked  by 
lines  of  separation,  more  or  less  distinct,  between  various 
subdivisions.  The  Dyaks  of  Borneo,  and  other  similar 
tribes,  are  often  spoken  of  as  aborigines,  but  they  are  thought 
by  the  best  authorities  to  be  but  ancient  branches  of  the  com- 
mon Malay  family.  There  has  been  more  or  less  amalgama- 
tion with  other  races  in  some  places,  especially  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Papuans  on  the  east;  and  a  few  members  of 
other  and  probably  more  ancient  races  are  found  scattered 
among  the  Malay  masses;  but  still  the  population  may  be 
correctly  said  to  be  distinctly  Malay  in  its  character  in  every 
island,  and  up  the  peninsula  as  far  as  Tenasserim. 

Mr.  Wallace  is  inclined  to  think,  and  his  opinion  is  sup- 
ported by  very  weighty  reasons,  that  the  Malays  were  origi- 
nally Chinamen,  with  a  later  admixture  of  some  foreign 
blood,  and  modified  by  a  long  residence  in  an  isolated  re- 
gion. A  striking  and  indeed  almost  conclusive  evidence  in 
support  of  this  theory  was  found  in  the  appearance  of  a  party 
of  Chinamen  on  one  of  the  islands,  who  had  adopted  the 
Malay  style  of  dress,  and  who  in  this  costume  were  so  much 
like  the  real  Malays  that  Mr.  Wallace  found  some  difficulty 
in  distinguishing  between  the  two.  Future  and  more  care- 
ful research  will  probably  show  that  the  leading  races  in 
southeastern  Asia  are  all  descended  from  the  same  original 
stock  with  the  Chinese. 

It  is  not  easy  to  write  confidently  of  the  Malay  character. 


494  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

For  centuries  they  have  been  represented  as  treacherous, 
vindictive,  and  cruel,  and  not  many  apologists  have  come 
forward  to  speak  in  their  favor.  It  is  more  than  probable, 
however,  that  they  are  a  much  better  people  than  the  outer 
world  has  given  them  credit  for.  It  is  not  to  be  expected 
that  a  people  who  have  been  known  to  the  world  chiefly  as  a 
race  of  pirates  will  be  spoken  of  very  highly ;  and  it  is  easy 
to  understand  how  their  character  has  been  painted  in  too 
black  colors.  As  to  their  treachery,  a  gentleman  in  Singa- 
pore said  to  the  writer :  "  I  have  lived  among  them  in  their 
villages  for  months,  having  my  family  with  me,  and  I  assure 
you  I  never  felt  safer  in  my  life."  It  may  generally  be  taken 
for  granted  that  indiscriminate  denunciations  of  a  whole  peo- 
ple are  exaggerated,  if  not  groundless;  and  it  may  be  assumed 
at  once  that  the  Malays  have  not  a  monoply  of  all  the  bad 
and  base  qualities  which  are  claimed  for  them.  At  the  same 
time,  it  may  be  freely  admitted  that  they  have  furnished  some 
grounds  for  the  grievous  accusations  laid  against  them;  but 
even  when  this  is  conceded  it  does  not  follow  hopelessly  that 
they  are  incapable  of  better  things.  Man  is  generally  found 
poised  midway  between  the  character  of  a  saint  and  that  of 
a  devil ;  and  the  presence  of  startling  evil  in  a  member  of 
the  race  is  no  proof  that  the  possibilities  of  the  highest  vir- 
tues do  not  coexist  with  the  evil.  The  Anglo-Saxon  has  in- 
herited enough  treachery  and  cruelty  to  sink  a  dozen 
nations;  and  we  are  the  last  people  to  take  up  stones  agaijost 
tribes  and  nations  which  have  never  enjoyed  a  tithe  of  our 
advantages.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  the  Malays, 
under  a  settled  government  and  controlled  by  a  firm  hand, 
will  rapidly  settle  down  into  a  quiet  and  peaceable  people, 
and  quickly  forget  the  bloody  practices  by  which,  in  darker 
days,  they  earned  their  evil  reputation.  In  many  regions 
they  are  even  now  as  orderly  and  peaceable,  if  not  as  indus- 
trious, as  the  inoffensive  people  of  North  India,  who,  less 
than  a  generation  ago,  went  armed  like  so  many  assassins. 
Moral  delinquencies,  however,  are  not  the  only  accusations 


MALAYSIA.  495 

laid  to  the  charge  of  the  Malays.  They  are  averse  to  hard 
labor  and  industrious  habits ;  are  improvident  and  indolent  in 
disposition;  fond  of  cock-fighting  and  childish  sports;  are 
inveterately  addicted  to  gambling;  and  altogether  seem  to 
lack  those  qualities  which  are  absolutely  indispensable  to  a 
people  who  would  rise  in  the  scale  of  civilization  to  a  place 
of  respectability  among  the  great  family  of  nations.  Dr. 
W.  F-  Oldham  says : 

"The  Malay  is  lethargic  because  of  the  condition  in  which  he 
finds  himself.  Life  under  the  equator  does  not  tend  to  activity. 
The  sea  is  full  of  fish,  the  shores  covered  with  cocoanut-groves,  the 
rice-fields  easily  produce  their  crops.  He  builds  himself  a  house  on 
stilts  on  the  margin  of  the  sea,  or  on  the  bank  of  a  river,  so  that 
when  the  tide  comes  in  the  water  will  flow  under  the  house.  The 
windows  are  built  so  that,  leaning  on  his  elbow,  he  can  look  out  of 
them  and  fish,  the  kindly  ocean  bringing  the  fish  to  his  very  win- 
dow. Lying  there  he  may  catch  enough  for  his  wants.  The  cocoa- 
nut  grove  behind  the  hut,  without  any  care  from  him,  will  produce 
its  unfailing  crop  of  nuts.  The  rice-fields  need  but  little  attention. 
Why  should  the  Malay  exert  himself?  You  talk  to  him  concerning 
the  civilized  life  of  other  men,  and  the  unceasing  activity  and  tire- 
less energy  of  the  West,  and  he  looks  at  you  through  his  large,  soft 
eyes,  shrugs  his  shoulders,  and  says  a  single  word,  '  Susa,' — '  It  is 
difficult.' " 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  Malay  does  not  seem  a  very 
hopeful  member  of  the  industrial  world;  but  it  hardly  be- 
comes the  descendants  of  the  ancient  pirates  of  the  north  of 
Europe  to  pronounce  a  hasty  judgment  upon  the  modern 
pirates  of  the  East.  The  Malays  may  not  rise  rapidly  as  a 
people,  but  they  are  clearly  not  destined  to  perish  rapidly 
from  the  earth.  The  Javanese  are  increasing  rapidly,  and 
are  advancing  moderately  in  civilization;  and  it  is  reason- 
able to  expect  that  other  sections  of  the  common  family  may 
yet  flourish  in  like  manner. 

During  recent  years  a  new  race-factor  has  been  introduced 
into  these  islands,  and  one  which  is  destined  not  only  to  be 
permanent,  but  to  exercise  a  most  important  influence  upon 


496  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

the  future  of  the  country  aiid  the  race.  The  Chinaman  has 
made  his  advent  in  Malaysia,  and  has  come  to  stay.  He  is 
the  Anglo-Saxon  of  the  tropics,  and  will  push  his  way  wher- 
ever laud  awaits  cultivation  or  mines  invite  exploration.  In 
the  whole  history  of  the  human  race  there  have  been  few 
more  curious  or  more  interesting  episodes  than  the  modern 
opening  of  the  gates  of  China,  and  the  outpouring  of  her 
millions  upon  the  rest  of  the  world.  They  are  overflowing, 
and  will  continue  to  overflow,  East  and  South ;  and  no  hostile 
legislation,  and  no  opposition,  can  permanently  arrest  their 
course.  The  world  has  much  to  fear,  but  more  to  hope  from 
their  irruption.  They  are  the  men  above  all  others  who  are 
to  subdue  the  jungles  of  the  tropics,  and  make  the  wilderness 
blossom  as  the  rose.  They  will  do  for  Malaysia  what  the 
present  inhabitants  can  not  do,  and  what  no  other  people  can 
be  expected  to  do.  They  do  not  seek  these  beautiful  islands 
merely  to  earn  wages,  and  after  a  brief  sojourn  to  return  to 
their  own  laud ;  but  they  make  their  homes  in  the  new  land 
to  which  they  go,  marry  the  daughters  of  the  people,  and 
identify  themselves  with  all  the  interests  of  the  country  of 
their  adoption. 

In  both  Singapore  and  Penang  the  Chinese  already  con- 
stitute a  large  majority  of  the  population,  and  are  beyond 
comparison  the  richest  and  most  prosperous  part  of  the  gen- 
eral community.  In  both  cities  the  second  and  even  third 
generations  of  "  Straits-born  " — that  is,  of  Malaysia-born — 
Chinese  are  found,  and  in  both  cities  these  are  the  leading 
people  of  the  community.  They  cherish  no  dream  of  return- 
ing  to  the  land  of  their  ancestors,  and  they  not  only  take 
pride  in  the  fact  that  they  are  British  subjects,  but  speak  with 
unaffected  contempt  of  "  those  Chinamen,"  as  they  designate 
the  China-born  portion  of  the  community  to  which  they  be- 
long. Owing  to  the  religious  prejudices  of  the  Mohammedan 
Malays,  very  few  of  these  China  settlers  have  married  native 
wives ;  but  in  other  parts  of  Malaysia  intermarriages  with 
the  natives  are  very  common,  as  is  also  the  case  in  Borneo,  to 


MALA  YSIA.  497 

• 
which  country  the  Chinese  are   flocking  in  large  numbers. 

Thus  far  nearly  all  these  settlers  retain  the  peculiar  costume 
of  their  race ;  but  in  other  respects  they  imitate  Europeans 
freely,  and  manifest  a  spirit  of  enterprise  which  augurs  well 
for  their  future  progress. 

What  is  witnessed  in  these  two  cities  will  probably  be 
repeated,  with  modifications,  all  over  the  islands.  The 
Chinese  will  penetrate  everywhere;  will  take  the  lead  in 
every  form  of  industrial  enterprise;  will  become,  in  time, 
amalgamated  with  the  present  inhabitants;  and  thus  there 
will  gradually  rise  up  a  new  people,  combining  in  their  char- 
acter the  patient  power  of  application  of  the  Chinaman  with 
the  pride  and  courage  of  the  Malay.  In  other  words,  a  new 
race  will  ultimately,  and  at  no  distant  day,  appear  upon  the 
stage,  and  enter  upon  a  career  of  progress  worthy  of  the 
splendid  heritage  which  God  in  his  providence  appears  to  be 
preparing  for  it. 

In  discussing  the  probable  future  of  these  commingling 
races,  the  question  of  language  naturally  presents  itself,  and  sug- 
gests some  curious  and  interesting  phenomena.*  The  Malay 
language,  as  spoken  in  Northern  Sumatra,  Malacca,  and  Singa- 
pore, is  the  lingua  franca  of  the  whole  region  from  Java  to 
the  Philippines,  and  from  Penang  to  the  Moluccas.  It  is  a 
very  simple  language,  in  an  elementary  stage  of  develop- 
ment, without  any  proper  inflections,  and  with  but  a  very 
limited  literature;  and  yet  it  seems  to  possess  a  wonderful 
power  of  making  other  tongues  give  way  before  it.  The 
Chinese  born  at  Singapore  use  it  as  their  mother  tongue,  and 
in  that  city  the  singular  spectacle  is  witnessed  of  a  congrega- 
tion of  Christian  Chinamen  meeting  regularly  to  worship 
God  in  a  tongue  unknown  to  their  ancestors.  It  is  easily 

*  The  Kev.  H.  L.  E.  Luering,  Ph.  D.,  has  kindly  furnished  me  a 
list  of  fifty-seven  languages  spoken  in  Malaysia,  and  mentions  the 
habitat  of  forty-three  other  tongues  to  which  no  distinctive  names  have 
been  given.  None  of  these  are  dialects  of  the  Malay  language,  of  which 
there  are  many. 

32 


498  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

learned,  and  is  everywhere  understood.  It  had  been  re- 
duced to  writing  by  the  Mohammedans  before  the  advent  of 
the  Europeans,  the  ordinary  Persi- Arabic  letters  being  used 
with  slight  modifications.  A  Romanized  alphabet  has  been 
introduced  since  the  European  era,  and  will  no  doubt  be  the 
character  used  by  the  people  generally  when  they  become  a 
reading  people.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  all  the  other 
languages,  particularly  the  Javanese  and  the  Tagala,  will  be 
discarded  quickly,  and  the  Malay  adopted  in  their  stead; 
but  it  is  extremely  probable  that  the  latter  will  prevail  more 
and  more  as  the  people  become  Christianized  and  civilized, 
and  that  the  less  important  dialects  will  disappear  before  it 
in  a  few  generations.  In  the  meantime  the  Malay  language 
itself  will  no  doubt  undergo  great  changes,  and  ere  it  be- 
comes the  common  language  of  a  hundred  millions  of  people 
will  probably  assimilate  to  itself  many  new  elements  of 
strength,  and  become  a  polished  and,  possibly,  even  an 
elegant  tongue. 

But,  all  speculation  aside,  it  is  an  interesting  and  hope- 
ful fact,  interesting  alike  to  the  missionary,  the  merchant, 
the  scientist,  and  the  statesman,  that  such  a  language  exists, 
and  can  be  used  as  a  common  medium  of  intercourse  through 
all  the  vast  extent  of  the  Malay  Archipelago.  It  simplifies 
the  task  which  Christianity  and  civilization  alike  have  set 
before  them,  to  enlighten  and  elevate  a  mighty  people — it 
might  almost  be  said  one  of  the  grand  divisions  of  the  globe. 
If  this  imperfect  Malay  tongue  is  not  fitted  to  be  all  to  the 
missionary  of  the  present  day  that  Greek  was  to  Paul  and 
his  companions,  it  is  nevertheless  an  invaluable  aid  to  the 
evangelist  who  sets  out  upon  voyages  longer  than  any  which 
Paul  ever  made,  and  among  a  people  scattered  over  a  sea 
nearly  twice  as  large  as  the  Mediterranean. 

When  the  vast  extent  as  well  as  the  rich  resources  of  these 
islands  is  considered,  it  can  not  but  excite  surprise  that  they 
have  been  so  long  neglected,  and  that  the  early  strife  for 
their  possession  has  so  long  given  place  to  indifference  and 


MALA  YSIA.  499 

neglect  on  the  part  of  all  European  nations,  with  the  single 
and  very  notable  exception  of  Holland.  Three  centuries 
ago  all  Europe  was  filled  with  the  fame  of  these  islands. 
Their  rich  spices,  their  luscious  fruits,  their  birds  of  para- 
dise, their  gold  and  gems  were  found  in  every  land,  and  for 
many  years  no  richer  East  was  known  than  that  discovered 
by  the  early  adventurers  who  first  made  their  way  into  these 
unknown  seas.  The  first  to  come  were  the  Portuguese,  who 
settled  at  Malacca  as  early  as  1511,  where  they  fixed  the 
seat  of  what  then  bid  fair  to  become  a  vast  dependency  of 
their  empire.  The  Spaniards  were  the  next  to  follow,  and 
in  1565  they  established  themselves  at  Manilla,  in  the 
Philippines.  The  first  English  expedition  which  reached 
the  islands,  was  that  of  Drake,  in  1578,  on  his  voyage  round 
the  world,  and  the  first  Dutch  arrival  was  in  1594.  In 
those  unhappy  days  all  such  adventurers  were  little  better 
than  so  many  pirates.  Their  respective  countries  might  be  at 
peace  in  Europe,  but  it  mattered  little  to  the  desperate  men 
who  sought  wealth  and  fame  in  these  ends  of  the  earth. 
They  not  only  made  war  against  one  another,  but  robbed 
and  plundered  with  impunity,  and  seemed  as  little  as  possi- 
ble like  the  forerunners  of  the  men  who  in  later  years  were 
to  teach  the  islanders  the  arts  of  civilization  and  peace.  It 
would  be  a  thankless  task  to  try  to  give  even  a  brief  sketch 
of  the  many  struggles  which  took  place  among  these  ancient 
rivals.  Cities  were  taken  and  retaken ;  islands  were  ceded  to 
one,  and  then  to  another;  change  followed  change,  until  after 
two  and  a  half  centuries  Holland  remains  the  rich  possessor 
of  an  empire,  Spain  holds  the  Philippines,  while  England, 
as  is  her  wont,  keeps  a  firm  hand  upon  the  key  position  of 
the  whole  region.  Portugal  has  retired  altogether,  and  little 
trace  of  her  former  glory  now  remains. 

It  is  not  generally  known  that  the  great  East  India 
Company  was  originally  organized  to  trade,  not  with  India, 
but  with  Malaysia,  and  but  for  an  untoward  event  which 
took  place  at  a  critical  moment  the  great  company  might 


500  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

have  worked  out  its  destiny  in  another  sphere  than  that  of 
India.  The  early  English  adventurers  did  not  set  foot  in 
India  for  twenty-seven  years  after  their  first  arrival  in 
Malaysia;  and  Bantam  was  the  English  head-quarters  in  the 
East  until  it  was  superseded  by  Madras  in  1653.  In  those 
bitter  days  the  Dutch  and  English  were  in  a  state  of  chronic 
feud,  and  vigorously  opposed  each  other  all  through  the  East. 
It  so  happened  that  an  English  vessel,  with  a  crew  half  En- 
glish and  half  Japanese,  was  seized  by  the  Dutch  of  Amboyna, 
and  captain  and  crew  were  alike  cruelly  put  to  death.  This 
happened  in  the  year  1623;  and  although  the  vessel  was 
small,  and  the  officers  and  crew  few  in  number,  the  tragedy 
made  a  profound  impression,  and  to  this  day  is  uniformly 
spoken  of  in  the  East  as  the  "  massacre  of  Amboyna."  Its 
immediate  effect,  however,  was  such  as  no  one  could  have 
anticipated.  Dreading  a  similar  fate,  the  English  traders 
determined  to  turn  toward  India  for  a  time,  and  in  doing  so 
quickly  discovered  a  wider  and  richer  field  for  their  enter- 
prise than  that  which  they  had  found  so  perilous.  From  that 
day  the  English  trade  was  diverted  in  the  direction  of  India, 
and  very  soon  the  foundations  began  to  be  laid  of  the 
greatest  empire  which  Asia  has  ever  seen.  But  for  this 
hideous  little  tragedy  happening  in  one  of  the  most  remote 
corners  of  the  earth,  and  turning  aside  the  current  of  what 
was  yet  to  become  a  mighty  and  irresistible  stream,  England 
might  to-day  have  been  the  possessor  of  the  archipelago, 
while  India  would  probably  have  been  a  French  empire. 

The  immense  value  of  the  Netherlands  India  to  Holland 
is  little  known  to  the  world  at  large,  but  is  fully  appreciated 
by  the  Dutch  themselves.  The  amount  of  territory  claimed 
by  them  is  equal  to  the  whole  of  Germany  in  area,  and 
contains  a  population  of  twenty -five  millions.  Among  co- 
lonial possessions  held  by  European  powers  it  ranks  second 
only  to  British  India.  Its  trade  with  Holland  is  equal  to 
half  the  trade  of  India  with  England,  while  its  ample  revenue 
suffices  not  only  to  maintain  an  efficient  army  and  a  vigorous 


MALAYSIA.  501 

government  in  the  islands,  but  enriches  Holland  in  a  way  and 
to  an  extent  which  is  unknown  in  the  relations  of  India 
with  England. 

The  policy  of  the  Government  of  Netherlands  India  has 
been  exceedingly  conservative  from  the  first.  The  rigid 
monopoly  which  was  enforced  by  the  British  East  India 
Company  as  long  as  public  opinion  in  England  permitted, 
continued  uninterrupted  in  Netherlands  India  until  very 
recent  years,  and  some  of  its  features  are  still  preserved 
intact.  This  monopoly  was  not  merely  commercial,  but  em- 
braced the  products  of  the  land  as  well,  and  was  carried  to 
such  an  extent  that  when  the  Dutch  assumed  the  monopoly  of 
the  growth  of  nutmegs,  they  deliberately  cut  down  all  the 
nutmeg-trees  of  the  islands  except  what  grew  on  the  reserved 
lands  of  the  Government.  The  price  of  the  various  kind  of 
field  products  was  fixed  each  year  by  authority,  and  the 
patient  cultivators  were  obliged  to  sell  to  Government,  not 
at  the  price  which  their  products  were  worth,  but  at  that 
which  would  enable  their  paternal  rulers  to  realize  a  large 
profit  in  the  general  market.  This  system  has  been  warmly 
advocated,  even  by  English  writers,  as  admirably  suited  to 
the  condition  of  the  people  at  their  present  stage  of  civiliza- 
tion; but  a  single  glance  will  suffice  to  show  that  every  such 
system  must  tend  to  foster  abuses,  while  it  will  just  as  cer- 
tainly repress  enterprise  and  hinder  all  healthy  progress. 
There  has  been  a  vigorous  agitation  in  Holland  upon  the  sub- 
ject during  recent  years,  and  some  radical  reforms  have  been 
introduced,  but  even  yet  restrictions  are  laid  upon  settlers  in 
those  islands  such  as  are  unknown  in  British  India,  and 
such  as  would  not  be  tolerated  for  a  day  if  an  attempt  were 
made  to  enforce  them. 

The  appearance  of  the  Germans  a  few  years  ago  in  the 
Eastern  seas  created  great  surprise  throughout  the  world,  and 
gave  rise  to  no  little  discussion  as  to  what  ultimate  designs 
the  great  Bismarck,  then  at  the  height  of  his  power,  cherished 
in  his  own  mind.  Under  the  orders  of  the  great  Chancellor, 


502  IN&IA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

German  troops  were  landed  on  the  coast  both  of  New  Guinea 
and  Borneo,  and  portions  of  territory  on  those  islands  were  for- 
mally annexed  in  the  name  of  the  German  Government.  The 
Australians  warmly  resented  the  annexation  of  a  portion  of 
New  Guinea,  affirming  that  all  the  islands  lying  near  their 
coasts  properly  either  belonged  to  themselves,  or  were  so  far 
within  what  has  been  called  their  "  sphere  of  influence,"  that 
no  intruders  from  Europe  should  be  allowed  to  meddle  with 
them.  This  agitation  has  since  subsided,  and  the  Germans 
quietly  maintain  their  footing  in  both  the  great  islands  with- 
out further  question  from  any  one.  If,  as  seems  quite  pos- 
sible, a  political  union  should  be  effected  between  Holland 
and  Germany  at  any  time  in  the  future,  these  German  settle- 
ments would  naturally  be  incorporated  into  Netherlands 
India,  which  would  then  become  German  India. 

The  Philippine  Islands  are  situated  so  far  to  the  northeast 
that  they  are  frequently  overlooked  when  the  rest  of  Malaysia 
is  considered;  but  the  people  properly  belong  to  the  great 
Malay  family,  and  the  islands  form  a  part  of  the  volcanic 
chain  which  runs  through  the  center  of  the  great  group.  The 
Spaniards  made  their  first  descent  upon  these  islands  in  1517, 
and  with  unimportant  interruptions  have  held  possession  ever 
since.  They  have  thus  had  nearly  four  centuries  in  which  to 
show  to  the  world  what  they  can  do  under  the  most  favorable 
circumstances,  in  developing  the  interests  of  a  distant  colony, 
and  improving  the  civilization  of  a  semi-barbarous  people. 
The  result  of  this  experiment  is  not  creditable  to  the  Spanish 
Government,  and  much  less  so  to  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy. 
In  these  islands  the  Roman  Catholics  have  had  their  own 
way,  with  scarcely  a  challenge  from  any  quarter.  A  Captain- 
General  is  sent  out  by  the  Spanish  Government,  but  the  real 
ruler  is  the  Roman  Catholic  Archbishop,  who  is  president  of 
the  "  Board  of  Authorities."  This  Board  is  composed  of  lead- 
ing officers  of  the  Government,  and  all  important  measures 
are  referred  to  them  for  approval  before  being  enforced,  not 
excepting  orders  from  the  home  Government.  In  all  country 


MALA  YSIA.  503 

districts  the  priests  are  the  magistrates,  school  inspectors,  and 
practically  the  administrators  of  the  Government.  Under  this 
arrangement  the  Archbishop  becomes  practically  the  ruler  of 
the  islands;  and  after  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  of 
trial  the  world  can  now  examine  the  results,  and  see  what  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  is  capable  of  doing  for  a  people 
bound  hand  and  foot  and  committed  to  its  tender  mercies. 

In  the  city  of  Manilla,  which  represents  all  that  is  most 
advanced  in  the  islands,  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  people 
are  illiterate,  not  being  able  even  to  read  or  write.  In  the 
country  districts  no  less  than  eighty-eight  per  cent  are  illiter- 
ate. This  illustrates  the  real  character  of  Romanism.  If 
Protestant  missionaries  could  be  admitted  to  the  islands,  and 
proceed,  as  they  undoubtedly  would,  to  found  schools  and 
give  the  people  a  chance  to  improve  themselves,  Roman  Cath- 
olic schools  would  at  once  spring  up  on  every  side.  But 
where  they  are  not,  in  a  measure,  thus  compelled  to  give  the 
people  an  education,  nowhere  in  the  wide  world  will  it  ever 
be  found  that  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  troubles  itself 
about  the  intellectual  elevation  of  the  people. 

Nor  is  the  case  any  better  from  a  moral  point  of  view. 
The  present  Archbishop  has  but  recently  arrived  in  the 
islands,  and  I  have  heard  nothing  for  or  against  his  charac- 
ter ;  but  his  predecessor  was  well  known  as  a  man  who  led  an 
irregular  life.  Two  well-known  ladies  in  Manilla  have  been 
recognized  as  his  daughters,  and  little  remark  has  been  occa- 
sioned thereby.  As  for  the  ordinary  priests,  very  few  of 
them  make  any  pretensions  to  leading  pure  lives.  It  is  quite 
common  for  them  to  be  fathers  of  families,  although  never 
husbands  of  wives.  It  would  shock  their  moral  sensibilities 
to  the  last  degree  if  one  of  their  number  should  legally  and 
decently,  as  well  as  Scripturally,  marry  the  mother  of  his 
children ;  but  so  long  as  they  abstain  from  Christian  mar- 
riage, nothing  is  said  of  their  irregularities.  It  will  be  said 
by  apologists,  no  doubt,  that  these  priests  belong  to  the  ob- 
scure and  almost  illiterate  descendants  of  the  early  Spanish 


504  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

settlers;  but  this  is  by  no  means  true.  Ninety  per  cent  of 
them  are  directly  from  Spain ;  and  when,  in  conversation  with 
a  Spanish  gentleman,  I  expressed  surprise  at  this  fact,  he  as- 
sured me  that  the  case  was  little  better  iu  Spain  itself.  The 
people  are  shocked  by  the  scandalous  lives  of  these  priests,  as 
even  heathen  would  be;  and  when  we  remember  that  no  other 
representatives  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  are  tolerated  on 
the  islands,  the  state  of  religion  appears  deplorable  enough. 
Nominally  the  inhabitants  of  the  islands  are  nearly  all  Roman 
Catholics,  as  might  have  been  expected.  They  have  no  op- 
tion in  the  matter.  But  while  they  have  peacefully  accepted 
the  religion  forced  upon  them,  they  still  retain  many  of  their 
old  customs.  They  have  among  them  their  own  native  med- 
icine-men, who  practice  witchcraft,  sorcery,  etc.,  after  the 
style  of  their  ancestors.  These  islands  present  as  needy  a 
field  for  missionary  effort  as  any  of  those  farther  south,  where 
Christianity  is  wholly  unknown.  But  for  the  present  we 
have  no  access  to  them.  An  agent  of  the  British  and  For- 
eign Bible  Society,  who  was  sent  there  two  or  three  years 
ago,  was  promptly  arrested  and  imprisoned  for  the  crime,  as 
it  was  defined  at  his  trial,  "of  spreading  doctrines  contrary 
to  the  official  religion."  After  a  brief  imprisonment  he  was 
released  on  bail,  and  permitted  to  leave  Manilla.  He  has 
since  not  been  able  to  return.  This  agent  is  a  member  of 
our  own  church,  and  well  known  to  me  as  a  man  of  excellent 
Christian  character. 

It  remains  to  speak  of  the  position  of  the  English  in 
Malaysia,  and  of  the  probable  extension  of  their  power  in 
the  early  future.  This,  however,  will  lead  to  a  wide  digres- 
sion, and  must  be  reserved  for  a  separate  chapter. 


Chapter  XXXIX. 

THE  STRAITS  SETTLEMENTS. 

THE  Straits  Settlements  is  the  name  of  a  number  of  small 
but  important  English  settlements  on  the  Malay  Penin- 
sula and  a  few  small  islands  near  the  coast,  governed  under 
the  colonial  system,  and  having  no  connection  directly  with 
India.  Correspondents  in  the  United  States  seem  to  find  it 
hard  to  understand  this,  and  in  sending  letters  to  Singapore  and 
Penang  persistently  add  India  to  the  address,  and  thus  send 
them  astray.  In  former  days,  when  the  very  small  posses- 
sions retained  by  the  English  in  that  quarter  of  the  world 
were  unimportant,  their  affairs  were  administered  by  the 
Government  of  India;  but  in  1852  a  separate  Government 
was  established  under  the  title  of  the  Straits  Settlements,  and 
a  Governor  appointed  from  England  to  manage  their  affairs. 
As  the  Indian  laws  had  been  in  force  before  the  separation 
of  these  settlements  into  a  colony,  they  were  formally  adopted 
by  the  first  Governor  and  his  Council,  and  hence  the  same 
code  of  laws  is  in  force  in  India  and  the  Straits  Settlements. 
The  administration  of  public  affairs  generally  has  also  been 
continued  upon  the  former  lines,  so  that  the  Indian  visitor 
in  Penang  or  Singapore  finds  himself  quite  at  home  in  all 
that  pertains  to  public  affairs.  These  settlements  comprise 
the  island  of  Singapore,  the  town  and  province  of  Malacca, 
the  islands  and  adjacent  main-lands  of  the  Dindings,  the 
island  of  Penang,  with  the  Province  Wellesley  on  the  ad- 
jacent main-land,  and  the  Cocos,  or  Keeling,  Islands.  The 
Governor  of  the  Straits  Settlements  is  also  High  Commis- 
sioner of  the  Territories  of  the  British  North  Borneo  Com- 
pany, Brunei  and  Sarawak,  in  Borneo.  This,  of  course, 

505 


506  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

points  to  an  ultimate  incorporation  of  those  territories  into 
a  single  consolidated  Government,  with  its  capital  at  Sin- 
gapore. 

Of  these  settlements,  Singapore  is  the  most  important. 
The  city  is  built  upon  the  southern  coast  of  a  beautiful  little 
island,  separated  by  a  narrow  strait  from  the  main-land.  One 
of  the  most  common  mistakes  into  which  Americans  fall  in 
reference  to  tropical  countries,  is  in  supposing  that  the  nearer 
one  goes  to  the  equator  the  higher  the  temperature  rises.  I 
frequently  receive  requests  from  young  missionaries  coming 
out  to  India  to  send  them  as  far  north  as  possible,  hoping 
thereby  to  find  a  home  in  a  cool  climate.  The  hottest  sta- 
tions'we  have  in  all  this  great  Eastern  field  are  in  Northern 
India.  Singapore,  on  the  other  hand,  which  is  only  ninety 
miles  from  the  equator,  has  a  very  equable  climate,  and  is 
considered  a  healthy  place.  The  highest  range  of  the  ther- 
mometer observed  since  1869  was  only  94  degrees.  The 
lowest  since  the  same  date  was  63  degrees.  There  is  but 
little  difference  in  the  temperature  from  month  to  month, 
the  changes  being  for  the  most  part  dependent  upon  local 
causes.  The  mean  maximum  temperature  is  86.3  degrees. 
The  mean  minimum  is  73.1.  Storms  are  rare,  and  indeed 
almost  unknown;  but  a  little  breeze  is  nearly  always  blow- 
ing in  some  direction,  and  so  long  as  there  is  the  slightest 
motion  in  the  air  the  heat  is  not  oppressive.  A  popular 
belief  is  entertained  that  in  Singapore  it  rains  every  day  in 
the  year;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  annual  average  of  wet 
days  is  only  164.  The  highest  number  of  wet  days  ever  re- 
ported in  a  single  year  is  209.  The  total  rain-fall  is  90.55 
inches,  which  is  by  no  means  excessive  for  a  tropical  climate. 
In  the  early  morning  the  average  temperature  throughout 
the  year  is  77  degrees,  and,  as  a  general  rule,  it  is  not  un- 
pleasantly hot  in  the  open  air  before  nine  o'clock,  even  in 
sunny  mornings.  The  nights  are  always  cool.  The  island 
of  Singapore  is  twenty-seven  miles  long  and  fifteen  miles 
wide. 


THE  STRAITS  SETTLEMENTS.  507 

The  city  was  founded  in  1819  by  Sir  Stamford  Raffles,  to 
whom  it  was  ceded  by  the  Malay  Sultan  of  Johore.  It  was 
made  the  seat  of  government  of  the  adjacent  settlements  in 
1837.  Sir  Stamford  Raffles  had  the  eye  of  a  statesman,  and 
quickly  perceived  that  the  little  island  upon  which  the  city  is 
built  occupied  the  key  position  to  all  that  part  of  the  East- 
ern World.  All  vessels  sweeping  around  the  long  Malay 
Peninsula,  on  their  way  to  China,  have  to  pass  this  point. 
Every  steamer  which  goes  through  the  Suez  Canal  en  route 
to  China  must  also  pass  here.  The  growth  of  the  town  was 
exceedingly  rapid,  surpassing  anything  that  had  before  been 
seen  in  all  the  Malay  region.  Within  the  first  four  months 
after  the  settlement  was  established,  no  less  than  five  thou- 
sand Chinese  colonists  had  settled  there.  In  order  to  en- 
courage commerce  at  this  point,  Sir  Stamford  Raffles  made 
Singapore  a  free  city,  and  it  has  maintained  this  character 
ever  since.  The  consequence  has  been  that  it  is  every  year 
becoming  more  and  more  an  emporium  for  all  the  great 
islands  adjacent,  and  must  permanently  hold  a  leading  posi- 
tion among  the  great  commercial  cities  of  the  world.* 

Penang  is  situated  on  a  small  island,  at  the  upper  end  of 
the  Straits  of  Malacca,  formerly  called  the  Prince  of  Wales 
Island,  but  now  better  known  by  the  name  of  the  city.  The 
island  was  ceded  to  the  English  Government  by  a  native 
prince  in  1785,  for  the  small  sum  of  six  thousand  dollars  a 
year.  It  is  only  about  two  miles  from  the  main-land,  and  is 
twelve  miles  long  and  nine  miles  wide.  At  a  later  day  a 
small  strip  of  land  was  taken  possession  of  on  the  opposite 
coast* for  the  purpose  of  putting  a  stop  to  the  piracy  of  the 
Malays,  which  was  a  standing  menace  to  the  commercial 
prosperity  of  the  town.  This  strip  of  land  is  named  the 
Province  Wellesley,  and  was  purchased  for  two  thousand  dol- 
lars, with  an  additional  annual  grant  of  two  thousand  dollars. 

*According  to  the  census  taken  April  1,  1891,  Singapore  contained 
184,554  inhabitants.  Of  these,  121,908  were  Chinese,  35,992  Malays, 
16,035  Indians,  and  8,843  Europeans  and  Eurasians. 


508  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

For  many  years  the  trade  of  Penang  made  it  a  leading  East- 
ern port;  but  it  has  suffered  severely  in  recent  years  by  the 
cession  on  the  part  of  the  English  Government  of  their  pos- 
sessions in  the  island  of  Sumatra  to  the  Dutch.  The  trade  of 
that  region,  which  formerly  came  to  Peuang,  has  since  been 
diverted  elsewhere.  As  an  indication  of  the  large  and  rapidly 
growing  trade  of  this  region,  it  is  sufficient  to  mention  that 
the  imports  of  Singapore  two  years  ago  were  $88,683,000, 
while  those  of  Penaug  were  $41,833,000.  The  principal  ar- 
ticles of  export  from  both  cities  are  gambier,  gutta-percha, 
coffee,  hides,  rattan,  sago,  pepper,  tapioca,  nutmegs,  canes, 
gums  of  various  kinds,  stick-lac,  oil-seeds,  cloves,  tin,  and 
small  quantities  of  other  metals.  But  little  of  the  land,  even 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  these  cities,  is  cultivated. 
On  the  small  island  of  Singapore  alone  there  are  more  than 
one  hundred  thousand  acres  of  arable  land  which  has  not  yet 
been  touched  by  either  plow  or  spade. 

The  city  of  Malacca  is  situated  on  the  main-land  of  the 
peninsula,  about  half-way  between  Singapore  and  Penang. 
It  was  formerly  a  well-known  and  very  prosperous  city — the 
most  prosperous,  indeed,  in  all  the  Eastern  World.  Long 
before  Calcutta,  Bombay,  Kangoon,  Batavia,  Hong  Kong,  or 
Manilla  had  attracted  the  attention  of  people  in  Europe, 
Malacca  was  a  great  emporium  of  trade,  and  the  magnificent 
seat  of  Portuguese  power.  It  was  wrested  from  the  Portu- 
guese in  1641  by  the  Dutch,  who  held  it,  without,  however, 
keeping  up  its  former  prosperity,  till  1795,  when  it  was  cap- 
tured by  the  English.  It  was  restored  again  to  the  Dutch  in 
1818,  but  a  little  later  was  again  and  permanently  restored 
to  the  English.  It  had  declined  steadily  from  the  time  that 
the  Portuguese  were  expelled,  not  only  from  Malacca  itself, 
but  from  all  the  adjacent  seas;  and  when  the  Dutch  took 
their  departure,  and  the  English  established  their  head-quar- 
ters, first  at  Penang  and  later  at  Singapore,  Malacca  fell  into 
rapid  decay.  In  recent  years,  however,  it  has  rallied,  and  is 
now  said  to  be  a  prosperous  town.  Large  numbers  of  iudus- 


THE  STRAITS  SETTLEMENTS. 


509 


trious  Chinese  have  settled  there,  and  it  will  no  doubt  remain 
a  local  center  of  some  importance. 

The  Malay  Peninsula  is  a  long,  narrow  strip,  which  ex- 
tends from  Burma  southward  to  Singapore.  The  upper  end 
of  the  peninsula  nominally  belongs  to  Siam ;  but  it  is  very 


THE  SULTAN  OF  JOHORE. 

doubtful  if  the  Siamese  Government  could  assert  its  authority 
in  any  part  of  this  territory  if  the  people  themselves  objected 
to  the  arrangement.  In  former  years  the  Siamese  ruled  over 
the  whole  peninsula;  but  from  time  to  time  they  were 
obliged  to  release  their  hold  upon  one  part  after  another, 
until  now  their  rule  in  the  North  is  little  more  than  nominal. 


510  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  English  have  extended  their  authority 
over  a  number  of  the  small  States  of  which  the  peninsula  is 
made  up.  These  States  are,  for  the  most  part,  ruled  by  Mo- 
hammedan princes  known  as  Sultans.*  Six  of  them  have 
been  formally  proclaimed  as  "  Protected  States.'5  The  word 
"  protected "  may  be  accepted  as  equivalent  to  "  prospect- 
ively  annexed,"  and  is  somewhat  similar  to  the  phrase  "  sphere 
of  influence,"  as  used  at  the  present  time  in  Africa.  The 
States  thus  protected  at  the  present  time  are  the  following: 
Perak,  Selangore,  Rembau,  Jelebu,  Negri-Sembilam,  and  Pa- 
hang.  For  all  practical  purposes  the  government  of  these 
States  is  under  the  control  of  Residents  appointed  by  the 
Governor  at  Singapore.  Each  Resident  is  the  official  ad- 
viser of  the  Sultan ;  but  in  several  of  the  States  the  admin- 
istration has,  to  a  large  extent,  been  placed  in  British  hands. 
The  whole  of  the  peninsula  will  undoubtedly  come  under  the 
direct  administration  of  the  Government  at  Singapore  before 
very  many  years.  The  peninsula  is  popularly  supposed  to  con- 
tain about  ninety  thousand  square  miles,  and  is  rich  in  min- 
eral and  agricultural  resources.  A  range  of  mountains,  which 
runs  down  the  center  of  the  peninsula,  is  supposed  to  be  rich 
in  its  deposits,  chiefly  of  tin,  but  also  in  some  places  of  gold, 
copper,  and  other  metals.  The  population  is  very  sparse, 
and  is  composed  for  the  most  part  of  Mohammedan  Malays, 
with  here  and  there,  in  the  remote  interior,  small  tribes  of 
aborigines.  The  Chinese,  for  some  years  past,  have  been 
flocking  into  the  country,  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  working 
in  the  tin-mines;  but  many  of  them  are  beginning  to  till 
the  soil  and  engage  in  all  manner  of  other  occupations.  It 
is  abundantly  evident  that  the  future  population  of  the  whole 
peninsula  will  be  Chinese.  These  settlers  are  sometimes 
very  turbulent,  and  the  raids  and  petty  wars  inaugurated  by 

*The  Sultan  of  Johore,  a  prosperous  little  State  lying  immediately 
north  of  Singapore,  is  the  most  enlightened  of  these  princes.  He  is  a 
man  of  fair  culture,  and  makes  a  good  and  successful  ruler.  His  por- 
trait is  given  on  the  preceding  page. 


THE  STRAITS  SETTLEMENTS  511 

them  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  persistent  piratical  habits  of 
the  Malays  on  the  other,  have  been  the  chief  causes  thus  far 
which  have  led  the  English  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  the 
native  States.  It  is  the  old  story  over  again — of  Christian 
civilization  coming  in  contact  with  heathen  barbarism.  It 
will  be  no  more  possible  for  an  enlightened  British  Gov- 
ernment at  Singapore  to  refrain  from  meddling  with  the 
tribes  to  the  northward,  than  for  the  Americans  to  pause  in 
their  westward  march  when  they  reach  the  confines  of  an 
Indian  tribe. 

In  addition  to  these  settlements,  the  British  possessions 
in  the  great  island  of  Borneo,  which  have  but  recently  been 
placed  under  the  government  of  the  Straits  Settlements,  will 
no  doubt,  in  the  early  future,  become  very  important  settle- 
ments. The  British  North  Borneo  Company  has  taken  pos- 
session of  a  valuable  strip  of  territory,  said  to  contain  30,000 
square  miles;  but  when  it  is  added  that  it  has  a  coast-line  of 
900  miles,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  practically  unlim- 
ited "sphere  of  influence"  lying  behind  this  line,  in  addition 
to  the  30,000  square  miles  which  have  been  more  directly 
taken  possession  of  by  the  company.  The  head-quarters  of 
the  government  of  this  company  are  at  Sandakan.  The 
coast  is  supplied  with  good  harbors,  but  the  country  is  as  yet 
very  sparsely  settled.  The  Chinese,  however,  have  com- 
menced coming,  and  will  probably  increase  rapidly  from 
year  to  year.  Sandakan  is  a  thousand  miles  from  Singapore, 
sixteen  hundred  from  Port  Darwin,  in  Australia,  and  twelve 
hundred  from  Hong  Kong.  Land  is  sold  to  settlers  for 
three  dollars  an  acre,  and  an  annual  tax  of  ten  cents  an  acre 
collected  from  cultivators.  If  the  settlers  neglect  to  culti- 
vate the  land,  it  reverts  again  to  the  Government. 

The  State  of  Sarawak  is  better  known  as  the  creation  of 
the  somewhat  famous  Raja  Brooke.  It  contains  about  50,- 
000  square  miles,  with  a  coast-line  of  400  miles.  Its  popu- 
lation is  estimated  at  300,000,  of  various  races,  among  whom 
the  Chinese  form  an  important  factor.  Sarawak  and  British 


512  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

North  Borneo  are  both  on  the  northern  coast  of  the  island. 
The  capital  of  this  State  is  Kuching.  The  present  Raja  is  a 
nephew  of  Sir  James  Brooke,  and  has  been  knighted  as  Sir 
Charles  Johnson  Brooke.  He  is  a  little  over  sixty  years  of 
age.  The  imports  of  the  State  amount  to  about  $2,225,000 
annually,  and  the  exports  amount  to  nearly  $2,500,000. 
The  principal  sources  of  revenue  are  the  licenses  granted  for 
opium  and  liquor  shops,  gambling,  and  other  questionable 
practices. 

The  mention  of  so  disreputable  sources  of  revenue  as 
those  which  the  State  of  Sarawak  reports,  will  no  doubt  ex- 
cite the  surprise  of  the  reader;  but  I  regret  to  say  that  the 
Government  of  the  Straits  Settlements  itself  is  dependent  to 
a  very  large  extent  upon  an  income  from  no  more  reputable 
sources.  Singapore  and  Penang  both  being  free  cities, 
nothing  can  be  collected  in  the  way  of  customs  duties. 
From  the  first,  the  Government  of  the  Settlements  has  unfor- 
tunately depended  chiefly  upon  the  revenue  derived  from  the 
sale  of  opium  and  spirits.  This  privilege  is  "  farmed  out," 
and  the  two  "  farms/'  so  far  as  Singapore  and  Penang  are 
concerned,  were  sold  in  1889,  the  former  for  $1,608,000,  and 
the  latter  for  $1,112,400.  That  is  to  say,  the  party  or  par- 
ties who  agreed  to  pay  this  enormous  sum  at  Singapore,  re- 
ceived therefor  the  exclusive  right  to  sell  opium  and  spirits, 
and  could  at  once  proceed  to  sublet  his  privilege  to  as  many 
shop-keepers  as  he  found  it  best  to  employ.  Other  privi- 
leges of  even  more  questionable  character  have  at  times 
yielded  an  important  part  of  the  revenue;  but  since  the 
memorable  vote  in  the  House  of  Commons  condemning  the 
practice  of  licensing  vice  in  the  East,  this  custom  has  been 
happily  abated. 

The  future  prosperity  of  all  this  region  depends  very 
largely  upon  the  Chinese.  As  remarked  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter, it  seems  to  be  the  destined  mission  of  these  people  to 
drain  the  swamps  and  cut  down  the  jungles  of  the  whole  of 
the  Eastern  tropical  world.  The  reader  in  America  will  find 


THE  STRAITS  SETTLEMENTS.  513 

it  difficult  to  realize  how,  actively  this  wonderful  people  are 
swarming  around  those  distant  Eastern  shores.  President 
Hayes,  during  the  latter  part  of  his  administration,  startled 
the  American  people  by  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  not 
less  than  five  millions  of  Europeans  would  probably  settle  in 
the  United  States  within  the  decade  following  the  year  of 
his  address.  The  event  has  proved  that  his  estimate  was 
none  too  high.  But  here,  in  this  remote  corner  of  the  earth, 
the  city  of  Singapore  alone  receives  about  150,000  emigrants 
every  year.  These,  it  is  very  true,  do  not  settle  in  the  city 
where  they  are  reported,  but  scatter  thence,  some  to  Sumatra, 
some  to  proceed  up  the  peninsula,  some  to  push  on  to  Burma, 
while  others,  in  large  and  constantly  increasing  numbers,  are 
distributed  among  the  great  islands  to  the  southeast.  No 
doubt  many  of  these  will  ultimately  return  to  their  native 
land;  but  out  of  so  vast  a  host  it  may  be  safely  assumed  that 
at  least  two-thirds  will  become  permanent  residents  in  the 
islands  to  which  they  go.  The  150,000  who  are  reported 
now  will  be  300,000  before  many  years ;  and  in  all  our  esti- 
mates concerning  the  future  of  Malaysia  it  may  as  well  be 
taken  for  granted  at  once  that,  whatever  the  future  language 
of  this  region  may  be,  the  people  will  practically  be  Chinese. 
This  fact  must  be  borne  in  mind  in  order  to  appreciate  the 
importance  of  the  work  which  we  are  trying  to  do  among 
the  Chinese  at  Singapore,  and  also  to  guide  us  in  all  our 
plans  for  the  future  prosecution  of  missionary  work  in  that 
region. 

As  we  near  the  equator  we  leave  behind  us  the  produc- 
tions not  only  of  the  temperate  zone,  but  of  the  sub-tem- 
perate, and  are  more  and  more  surprised  to  find  that  the 
grain-fields  even  of  Central  and  Southern  India  no  longer 
appear.  Rice  is  cultivated  to  some  extent  under  the  equator 
itself;  but  even  that  product  of  the  tropical  swamp  does  not 
flourish  at  its  best  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the 
equator.  What  a  more  intelligent  and  higher  civilization 
may  yet  be  able  to  extract  from  that  tropical  soil  still  remains 

88 


514  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

to  be  seen  ;  but  for  the  present  the  people  are  largely  depend- 
ent upon  the  exchange  which  they  make  with  their  northern 
or  southern  neighbors.  Malaysia  will  probably  be  for  many 
years  to  come  the  great  producer  of  the  more  precious  spices. 
Its  forests  and  its  mines  will  contribute  largely  to  the  wealth 
of  the  world,  and  perhaps  some  new  productions  will  be  dis- 
covered which  will  in  some  measure  take  the  place  which  the 
great  family  of  cereals  occupies  in  the  temperate  zones.  For 
the  present,  however,  both  the  garden  and  the  field  disappoint 
the  stranger  who  visits  that  region. 

Not  so,  however,  with  the  orchard.  No  part  of  the 
world  can  produce  more  luscious  fruit  than  is  found  upon 
the  table  in  Penang,  Singapore,  and  Batavia.  The  pine-apple 
flourishes  better,  perhaps,  than  in  any  other  part  of  the 
world.  The  banana,  of  course,  is  everywhere  in  its  natural 
home.  The  mangosteen,  a  delicate  fruit,  looking,  when  the 
outer  covering  in  which  it  is  encased  is  cut  open,  like  the 
most  delicate  new,  white  honeycomb,  is  often  called  the 
queen  of  all  fruits,  and  for  delicacy  of  flavor  is  certainly  sur- 
passed by  no  other  fruit  in  the  world.  The  mango,  although 
not  at  its  best  under  the  equator,  is  brought  down  the  coast 
from  both  Burma  and  Siam.  But  the  one  notable  fruit  for 
which  all  the  Malaysian  region  is  famed  is  the  durian,  or,  as 
it  is  sometimes  written,  dorian.  This  fruit  belongs  to  the 
same  family  as  the  jack  and  bread  fruit,  but  differs  from 
those  fruits  in  several  very  marked  particulars.  The  durian- 
tree  grows  to  a  great  size,  and  has  smooth  and  almost  white 
bark,  which  sometimes  reminds  one  of  the  Western  sycamore 
or  buttonwood.  The  fruit  when  at  its  best  is  somewhat 
oval-shaped,  about  eight  or  ten  inches  in  diameter,  and 
covered  with  a  thick  shell,  which  is  protected  by  sharp  and 
hard  spikes.  When  broken  open,  the  stranger  who  draws 
near  to  look  at  it  will  probably  fly  in  dismay.  The  fruit 
unfortunately  exhales  a  perfume  which  is  as  little  pleasing 
to  the  ordinary  nostril  as  any  other  odor  to  be  found  in  the 
world.  If  one  can  forget  the  odor,  and  make  bold  to  taste 


THE  STRAITS  SETTLEMENTS.  515 

the  fruit,  he  may  become  passionately  fond  of  it  at  once,  or 
he  may  find  it  as  difficult  to  acquire  a  liking  for  it  as  a  novice 
does  in  the  use  of  tobacco.  Habit,  however,  here  as  every- 
where, soon  settles  the  case.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  nearly  all 
European  residents  in  Malaysia  become  very  fond  of  the 
durian.  Mr.  Wallace,  in  his  work  on  the  Malay  archipelago, 
calls  it  the  king  of  fruits;  and  old  residents  protest  vigor- 
ously, and  sometimes  indignantly,  when  they  hear  their 
favorite  fruit  disparaged.  It  is  often  amusing  to  see  this 
fruit  put  upon  a  table  when  strangers  are  present.  Some  of 
the  new  arrivals  will  actually  fly  from  the  room.  At  hotels 
and  on  steamers,  strangers  have  been  known  to  protest  against 
placing  such  an  offensive  fruit  upon  the  table.  On  one 
steamer  on  which  I  traveled,  the  captain,  to  the  extreme  in- 
dignation of  some  of  his  passengers,  had  a  durian  put  upon 
the  breakfast-table.  The  following  week  I  chanced  to  be 
upon  another  steamer  in  the  same  harbor,  and,  when  a  boat 
with  durians  for  sale  came  alongside,  the  captain  peremp- 
torily ordered  the  quartermaster  not  even  to  allow  the  boat  to 
lie  alongside,  much  less  to  permit  any  of  the  fruit  to  be 
brought  on  deck. 

The  stranger  from  the  North  is  surprised,  on  nearing  the 
Eastern  tropics,  to  notice  the  absence  of  everything  like  a 
rich  floral  display.  Flowers  indeed  are  found,  but  very  few 
of  them  challenge  attention  by  either  their  beauty  or  perfume. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  foliage  of  many  trees  and  creepers 
makes  ample  amends  for  the  deficiency  of  display  on  the  part 
fof  the  flowers.  Everywhere  the  stranger  is  struck  with  the 
variety  and  beauty  of  the  leaves,  some  of  which  are  very 
large,  while  others  again,  though  smaller,  are  no  less  delicate 
than  beautiful  in  their  array  of  color,  which,  like  the  lilies 
of  old,  far  surpassed  the  raiment  of  the  resplendent  Solomon. 
Aside  from  the  uncounted  family  of  orchids,  which  in  the 
depths  of  the  jungles,  as  well  as  in  the  conservatories  of  the 
cities,  appear  at  their  best,  the  Malay  Peninsula  and  adjacent 
islands  can  boast  of  but  a  small  list  of  beautiful  flowers. 


516  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

The  fauna  of  this  region  is,  with  a  few  exceptions,  the 
same  as  that  of  India.  The  elephant,  tiger,  and  other  large 
animals  no  doubt  belonged  to  the  islands  before  the  great 
submergence  which  separated  them  from  the  main-land  of 
Asia.  The  bird  of  paradise  is  a  notable,  exception  among 
birds,  and  the  orang-outang — literally  "wild-man"  in  the 
Malay  language — among  animals.  The  bird  of  paradise  has 
a  very  limited  habitat,  and  is  found  only  among  some  of  the 
smaller  islands  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  archipelago.  There 
are  many  varieties  of  this  bird,  some  of  them  differing  very 
widely  from  the  specimens  with  which  Europeans  are  most 
familiar.  AVhile  probably  the  most  beautiful  of  all  known 
birds,  this  famous  queen  of  the  forest  is  not  gifted  in  any 
other  particular.  Like  other  children  of  vanity,  the  bird  of 
paradise  has  but  a  small  stock  of  brains,  and  is  so  stupid 
that  the  most  common  method  of  capturing  it  is  for  a  Malay 
to  climb  the  tree  upon  which  it  is  perched  until  he  is  within 
a  few  feet  of  the  bird,  when  he  shoots  it  with  an  arrow,  while 
it  is  absorbed  in  strutting  about  on  a  branch  above  him,  dis- 
playing its  gorgeous  feathers,  very  much  after  the  manner  of 
a  peacock  when  similarly  engaged.  It  is  said  that  a  dozen 
or  more  of  these  birds  will  be  thus  employed,  strutting  and 
making  a  noise  wrhich  has  more  of  a  frog's  croak  than  a 
bird's  music  in  it,  and  such  is  their  want  of  intelligence 
that  a  number  of  them  will  be  killed  before  the  others  take 
alarm. 

The  stories  of  man-eating  tigers  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Singapore,  and  of  enormous  serpents  on  the  peninsula,  are 
no  doubt  exaggerated.  Nearly  every  globe-trotter  who  passes 
Singapore  goes  on  his  way  to  tell,  during  the  rest  of  his  life, 
that  tigers  abound  in  the  jungles  of  the  island  of  Singapore 
to  such  an  extent  that,  on  an  average,  one  native  is  killed 
every  day  in  the  year.  This  story  is  simply  a  myth.  It 
does  happen  at  times  that  tigers  swim  across  from  the  main- 
land, and  give  more  or  less  trouble  to  the  people  on  the 


THE  STRAITS  SETTLEMENTS.  517 

island,  especially  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  go  into  the  jungles 
to  cut  timber;  but  it  is  much  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  a 
dozen  natives  are  killed  on  the  island  in  the  course  of  a  year, 
than  three  hundred  and  sixty-five.  Tigers  are  dangerous 
denizens  of  any  forest  after  they  once  acquire  a  taste  for  hu- 
man flesh.  It  is  not  that  they  prefer  this  kind  of  food  to 
any  other,  but  rather  that  they  chance  to  make  the  discovery 
that  man  is  not  as  well  able  to  defend  himself  against  such 
a  foe  as  other  large  animals.  In  fact,  no  creature  when  face 
to  face  with  a  tiger  is  more  helpless  than  a  man,  when  he 
chances  to  be  without  weapons  of  any  kind.  Many  years 
ago  I  knew  of  an  old  tigress  near  the  foot  of  the  Himalayas 
which  killed  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons  before 
being  killed  herself.  The  creature  was  known  by  the  fact 
that  a  number  of  the  toes  of  one  of  her  forefeet  had  been 
cut  off  in  an  encounter  with  a  hunter,  and  her  track  in  the 
sand  was  easily  recognized.  One  such  tiger  as  this  could  give 
a  reputation  to  the  island  of  Singapore  which  would  not  be 
effaced  for  a  dozen  years. 

Large  pythons  undoubtedly  are  found  in  the  forests  of 
the  peninsula;  but  it  is  not  probable  that  they  are  any  larger  or 
much  more  numerous  than  in  the  great  forest  tracts  of  India. 
The  difference,  if  any,  is  probably  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
jungles  of  the  peninsula  have  not  been  traversed  by  armed 
hunters,  and  not  only  tigers  and  pythons,  but  all  manner  of 
wild  animals  and  reptiles  have  been  left  to  increase  and  mul- 
tiply. Stories  are  told  of  serpents  having  been  shot  twenty- 
five  and  even  thirty  feet  long ;  but  I  have  not  been  able  to 
authenticate  even  one  such  account.  Occasionally,  however, 
a  python  is  captured  from  twenty  to  twenty-two  feet  in 
length.  One  of  our  missionaries,  Dr.  B.  F.  West,  had  an 
adventure  a  few  years  ago  with  one  of  these  monsters,  which 
he  probably  will  not  soon  forget.  He  had  gone  to  a  point 
on  the  western  coast,  and  was  making  a  journey  across  the 
peninsula  eastward,  on  a  route  which  had,  so  far  as  was 


518  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

known,  never  before  been  followed  by  any  European.  He 
was  traveling  on  foot,  and  had  just  crossed  a  small  stream 
and  climbed  up  the  somewhat  steep  ascent  to  a  level  piece  of 
ground  covered  with  high  grass,  through  which  he  had  to 
pass  by  a  very  narrow  path,  the  grass  being  in  many  places 
as  high  as  his  head.  In  front  of  him  was  a  small  open 
space,  on  which  some  buffaloes,  with  their  calves,  were 
grazing.  As  Dr.  West  was  leisurely  walking  along,  he 
chanced  to  notice  an  enormous  python  stretched  out  close 
along  the  path,  not  more  than  six  inches  from  his  feet.  The 
monster  was  probably  waiting  for  the  buffaloes  to  come  down 
the  path  to  get  a  drink  at  the  river  below,  in  which  case  he 
would,  no  doubt,  have  seized  one  of  the  smaller  calves,  and 
made  his  breakfast  upon  it.  As  Dr.  West  was  telling  me  of 
the  adventure,  I  asked  him  : 

"  What  did  the  python  do  ?'* 

"  He  simply  raised  his  head  a  little,"  he  replied,  "  but 
made  no  other  motion." 

"And  what  did  you  do?" 

"  I  .raised  every  hair  on  my  head,  and  got  out  of  there  as 
fast  as  I  could." 

He  probably  had  a  narrow  escape,  although  it  is  possible 
that  the  serpent,  preferring  to  breakfast  on  a  buffalo-calf 
rather  than  a  man,  purposely  let  him  pass.  The  python,  like 
all  other  large  serpents,  is  a  very  stupid  creature,  and,  unless 
approached  suddenly  in  some  way  similar  to  the  above,  will 
never  attempt  to  harm  any  one.  No  living  creature  could 
be  more  stupid.  I  have  seen  them  put  up  in  boxes  for  ship- 
ment to  Europe,  eight  or  ten  big  fellows  being  put  in  a 
single  box.  A  few  holes  are  bored  in  the  lid  to  admit  air,  and 
the  serpents  lie  perfectly  quiet  throughout  the  voyage.  They 
are  caught  in  the  simplest  possible  manner.  When  the  na- 
tives discover  one  lying  quietly  in  the  jungle,  a  man  spreads 
a  blanket  upon  a  slight  frame  attached  to  the  end  of  a  long 
bamboo,  and,  approaching  quietly,  throws  the  blanket  over 


THE  STRAITS  SETTLEMENTS.  519 

the  python's  head.  Instead  of  drawing  back,  the  big  serpent 
attempts  to  raise  its  head,  and  thus  muffles  its  own  eyes. 
Two  men,  with  a  large  open  bag,  are  in  readiness,  and,  seiz- 
ing the  serpent's  tail,  they  slip  it  into  the  bag ;  and  then,  ad- 
vancing toward  its  head,  they  slip  the  whole  body  back  into 
the  bag,  and  by  a  quick  jerk  bring  it  up  over  the  head,  and 
tie  it.  The  hideous  but  harmless  captive  is  then  taken  to 
the  city,  and  sold  for  export  to  Europe. 


Chapter   XL. 
THE  MALAYSIAN  MISSION. 

OUR  attention  was  first  drawn  to  Singapore  in  the  same 
way  as  it  had  been  directed  to  Rangoon.  By  the 
steamer  route  down  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal, 
Singapore  is  about  1,850  miles  from  Calcutta ;  but,  although 
so  far  away,  when  we  began  our  work  among  seamen  in  the 
latter  place  we  soon  began  to  hear  of  the  thriving  city 
which  was  growing  up  almost  under  the  equator,  on  the 
great  ocean  highway  to  China;  and  when,  in  1879,  we  ex- 
tended our  work  to  Rangoon,  we  began  to  receive  occasional 
invitations  to  proceed  farther  down  the  coast,  and  preach  in 
Singapore  also.  At  that  time  I  chanced  to  be  the  presiding 
elder  of  what  was  called  the  "Calcutta  District,"  a  geo- 
graphical expression,  which  included  Bengal  and  as  much 
territory  down  the  coast  as  we  might  wish  to  occupy.  For 
some  time  I  gave  no  serious  attention  to  such  invitations, 
but  at  length  began  to  feel  a  conviction  that  we  should  go 
to  Singapore,  and  see  if  God  had  work  for  us  in  that  city. 
As  this  conviction  matured,  and  as  I  procured  all  possible 
information  about  the  city,  the  people,  and  the  vast  region 
of  which  it  must  always  be  the  commercial  center,  all  doubt 
vanished  from  my  mind,  and  I  felt  assured  that  God  was 
beckoning  us  onward  to  one  more  advanced  post.  At  length 
I  became  so  impressed  with  the  importance  of  the  project, 
that,  early  in  the  year  1884,  I  published  a  letter  in  the 
Western  Christian  Advocate,  calling  for  two  young  men  to 
come  out  as  volunteers,  and  occupy  the  distant  outpost  of 
Singapore.  I  had  nothing  to  offer  the  volunteers  except  a 
great  opportunity  to  do  and  dare  for  their  Master.  We  had 
520 


THE  MALA  YSIAN  MISSION.  521 

not  a  dollar  in  the  way  of  financial  resources,  and  our  plan 
was  to  do  as  we  had  done  in  so  many  cities  of  India — preach 
to  the  Europeans  and  Eurasians,  organize  a  self-supporting 
church  among  them,  and  then  from  this  base  work  outward 
among  the  non-Christian  people.  The  utmost  I  could  prom- 
ise was  that  I  would  accompany  the  two  young  men,  and 
help  them  make  a  start  by  preaching  for  a  season  and 
organizing  the  work  for  them. 

To  this  appeal  there  was  an  immediate  response.  About 
twenty  young  men  came  promptly  forward  and  offered  them- 
selves for  what  then  seemed  a  very  forlorn  enterprise.  It 
took  time,  however,  to  correspond  with  these  candidates, -and 
while  they  proved  to  be  good  and  true  men,  nti  two  among 
them  were  quite  adapted  to  the  very  peculiar  service  re- 
quired of  them.  Two  or  three  of  the  number,  however, 
were  accepted  for  service  in  India  a  year  or  two  later. 

In  the  meantime,  near  the  close  of  the  year,  Bishop 
Hurst  was  approaching  India,  after  a  prolonged  tour  in 
Europe.  He  had  heard  nothing  whatever  about  our  pro- 
jected mission  in  Singapore,  and  was  not  aware  that  a  call 
for  volunteers  had  already  been  made  in  America,  or  that 
young  men  were  offering  for  the  post.  By  an  extraordinary 
coincidence,  which  every  Christian  will  interpret  as  a  clear 
evidence  that  God  was  moving  in  the  matter,  his  mind  had 
been  strangely  turned  in  the  direction  of  Singapore.  He 
had  just  authorized  the  opening  of  a  new  work  in  Finland, 
thus  gaining  access  in  the  extreme  north  to  a  people  within 
the  territory  of  the  great  empire  of  Russia,  and  there  seemed 
a  poetic  fitness  in  the  thought  that  his  next  advanced  move 
should  be  in  the  far  south,  almost  under  the  equator  itself. 
It  was  no  such  fancy,  however,  that  directed  Bishop  Hurst's 
mind  in  this  case.  He  had  met  with  tourists,  and,  in  one 
case,  with  a  resident  of  Singapore  itself,  who  had  called  his 
attention  to  that  part  of  the  world,  and  he  had  thus  become 
impressed  with  its  importance.  But  added  to  the  interest 
thus  created  was  a  distinct  conviction,  which  he  felt  was 


522  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

from  above,  that  he  ought  to  do  something  to  extend  our 
work  in  that  direction.  When  I  met  him,  soon  after  his 
arrival  in  Bombay,  the  first  question  he  put  to  me  was, 
"  What  can  we  do  for  Singapore  ?"  I  supposed  he  had 
heard  of  my  appeal  in  the  American  papers,  but  was  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  he  had  received  110  intimation  from  any 
quarter  that  such  a  project  had  ever  been  mooted  by  any  one 
else.  He  and  I  had  been  living  and  working  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  globe,  and  yet  our  minds  had  been  strangely 
led  to  the  same  conclusion,  and  our  hearts  had  become  im- 
pressed with  the  same  conviction.  WTe  both  felt  that  God 
would  have  us  move  in  the  direction  of  the  far  southeast. 
When  the  South  India  Conference  met  for  its  annual 
session  in  Haidarabad,  in  December,  1884,  the  proposal  to 
found  a  new  mission  in  Singapore  was  the  most  prominent 
question  brought  forward.  Practically,  it  presented  itself 
as  a  proposal  to  found  a  foreign  mission,  the  first  enterprise 
of  the  kind  which  had  ever  been  undertaken  by  our  Indian 
Methodists.  Singapore  was,  both  geographically  and  polit- 
ically, far  beyond  the  boundaries  of  India  proper,  and  to 
all  intents  and  purposes  would  constitute  a  foreign  mission, 
founded  and  directed  by  the  Methodists  of  India.  We  had 
no  financial  resources  whatever  to  fall  back  upon,  but  this 
gave  us  little  concern.  The  one  vital  question  to  be  con- 
sidered was  that  of  finding  the  right  man  to  put  in  charge 
ol  the  work.  Up  to  that  date  no  one  with  the  peculiar 
qualifications  needed  for  so  difficult  a  post  had  offered  in 
America,  and  we  were  obliged  to  look  round  among  our 
own  little  band  of  workers  for  some  one  to  send  to  the 
new  and  distant  outpost.  At  once  our  thoughts  turned  in 
the  direction  of  Wm.  F.  Oldham,  a  man  who  seemed  in 
many  respects  peculiarly  fitted  for  the  difficult  and,  in 
some  respects,  hazardous  undertaking.  This  was  to  be  our 
first  Indian  foreign  mission,  and  it  was  peculiarly  fitting 
that  we  should  put  an  Indian  in  charge  of  it.  Mr.  Oldham 
was  of  European  parentage,  but  had  been  born  in  India  and 


THE  MALA  YSIAN  MISSION.  523 

brought  up  there.  He  had  been  employed  for  a  number  of 
years  in  the  survey  service  of  the  Indian  Government,  and 
had  been  thoroughly  educated  for  that  kind  of  work,  but 
soon  after  his  conversion  he  began  to  feel  the  need  of  a 
broader  culture,  and  also  became  impressed  with  the  con- 
viction that  God  had  a  work  for  him  to  do  in  connection 
with  our  church.  His  young  wife,  also  born  in  India, 
shared  his  convictions,  and  the  two  determined  to  go  to 
America,  complete  their  education,  and  in  due  time  return  to 
India  to  devote  themselves  to  missionary  work  among  their 
own  people.  They  were  now  on  the  ocean  and  nearing 
India,  but  without  the  shadow  of  a  dream  that  their  brethren 
in  India  were  planning  for  them  so  complete  a  change  in  all 
their  plans  and  expectations  as  that  of  sending  them  on 
beyond  to  distant  Malaysia.  It  was  impossible  to  consult 
them,  and  the  brethren  at  Haidarabad  could  only  act  in  full 
confidence  in  the  loyalty,  courage,  and  devotion  of  the 
two  workers  at  sea.  The  decision  was  carefully  and  prayer- 
fully made,  and  when  Bishop  Hurst  read  the  appointments, 
the  name  of  Wm.  F.  Oldham  was  announced  as  missionary 
at  Singapore. 

When  Conference  adjourned  I  hastened  to  Bombay  to 
meet  the  Oldhams,  and  found  them  calm  and  resolute  in  the 
face  of  the  unexpected  and  difficult  enterprise  which  con- 
fronted them.  They  were  startled  and  perhaps  a  little  sad- 
dened, but  not  discouraged  or  depressed.  Mr.  Oldham  said 
to  me  :  "I  had  prayed  for  some  days  that  God  would  make 
me  willing  to  go  to  any  post  in  all  India  to  which  I  might  be 
sent,  and  I  at  last  had  reached  a  point  where  I  felt  I  was  per- 
fectly willing  for  any  place  selected  for  me  in  all  this  empire ; 
but  it  never  once  dawned  upon  my  thoughts  that  they  would 
shoot  me  clear  through  the  empire,  and  fifteen  hundred  miles 
out  on  the  other  side."  We  talked  a  little  while  about  the 
best  course  for  the  future,  and  soon  drew  up  a  plan  of  action. 
We  were  going  to  plant  a  new  mission  in  a  place  as  far  dis- 
tant from  Bombay  as  Liverpool  is  from  New  York.  We  had 


524  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

no  financial  resources  whatever.  We  knew  no  person  in 
Singapore,  and  had  nothing  to  depend  upon  on  arrival  except 
the  promises  of  God.  We  could  not  look  to  the  Missionary 
Society ;  for  we  were  taking  the  initiative  in  this  case,  and  it 
would  have  required  a  full  year  to  send  forward  an  applica- 
tion to  the  General  Committee  and  secure  an  appropriation 
in  the  usual  way.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  had  not  money 
enough  to  pay  our  passage  to  Singapore  and  my  own  passage 
back  again.  It  was  decided  that  we  should  go  there,  begin 
to  preach  to  the  English-speaking  people,  organize  a  self- 
supporting  church,  and  having  thus  planted  our  missionary 
in  a  new  post,  await  the  developments  of  Providence.  Leav- 
ing Mrs.  Oldham  with  her  mother  for  the  time  being,  we 
crossed  India,  and  took  passage  from  Calcutta  for  Rangoon  and 
Singapore.  As  we  expected  to  hold  continuous  services  for 
several  weeks,  and  needed  help,  especially  in~conducting  sing- 
ing, we  took  with  us  my  wife  and  Miss  Battie,  who  was  at 
that  time  chorister  of  our  Calcutta  cougregation.  We  had 
barely  money  enough  to  buy  tickets  to  Singapore,  but  noth- 
ing to  pay  our  way  back ;  and  thus  we  entered  upon  the  for- 
midable enterprise  of  planting  a  new  mission  in  the  central 
city  of  the  vast  region  known  as  Malaysia. 

Our  first  stop  was  at  Rangoon,  where  we  spent  five  days, 
holding  meetings  morning  and  evening,  and  assisting  the  de- 
voted and  courageous  little  baud  of  workers  who  are  sta- 
tioned in  that  city.  There  seemed  to  be  an  inspiration  in  the 
project  on  which  we  had  embarked,  and  our  people  in  Ran- 
goon were  not  only  cheered,  but  greatly  encouraged  and 
; filled  with  enthusiasm,  at  the  idea  of  thus  pushing  our  work 
into  the  regions  beyond.  At  our  last  meeting  a  liberal  col- 
lection was  taken  in  aid  of  our  enterprise,  and  we  thus  learned 
that  God  was  not  going  to  forget  our  needs.  Our  next  stop 
was  at  Penang,  where  our  steamer  remained  for  twenty-four 
hours.  We  went  ashore  and  visited  the  only  Protestant 
mission  in  the  place,  under  the  care  of  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Macdonald.  It  was  an  independent  mission,  and  had  not 


THE  MALA  YSIAN  MISSION.  525 

made  much  headway  among  the  people.  I  preached  to  a 
small  congregation  in  the  evening,  and  made  such  observa- 
tions as  our  brief  stay  enabled  me  to  do.  A  single  glance 
sufficed  to  show  that  a  vast  field  was  open  to  any  mission 
which  would  begin  a  vigorous  work  in  the  place.  Mr.  Mac- 
douald  was  carrying  on  an  independent  work,  but  on  narrow 
lines,  which  left  most  of  the  field  practically  open  to  any  \ 
new-comers.  Proceeding  on  our  way,  we  entered  the  beau- 
tiful harbor  of  Singapore  on  the  morning  of  the  second  day, 
and  were  kindly  greeted  by  Mr.  Phillips,  superintendent  of 
the  Sailors'  Home,  a  Christian  brother  who  had  repeatedly 
sent  us  kind  messages  and  invited  us  to  come  and  preach  in 
Singapore.  We  were  driven  to  the  home  of  this  good 
brother,  and  kindly  entertained  by  him  during  our  stay  of 
three  weeks. 

Singapore  now  lay  wide  open  before  us,  and  yet  at  the 
same  time,  in  another  sense,  tightly  closed  against  us.  The 
people  were  all  there,  the  utmost  liberty  was  accorded  to  us, 
and  no  one  was  disposed  to  throw  the  slightest  obstacle  in 
our  way;  and  yet  we  were  strangers  in  a  strange  city,  with- 
out resources,  without  prestige  or  influence  of  any  kind,  and 
it  certainly  seemed  a  most  difficult  undertaking  to  plant  a 
mission  on  the  basis  which  we  had  adopted.  The  European 
public  of  Singapore  was  not  a  large  one,  and  at  that  particular 
time  was  not  favorably  inclined  toward  a  work  such  as  we 
proposed  to  establish.  An  unfortunate  attempt  to  hold 
evangelistic  meetings  had  just  been  made  without  success, 
conducted  by  a  stranger  whose  zeal  had  not  been  wholly  ac- 
cording to  knowledge.  No  one  could  be  sure  that  we  would 
do  any  better,  or  that  we  would  work  upon  a  different  basis, 
and  hence  we  must  first  establish  a  reputation  before  we  could 
expect  to  wield  much  influence.  Only  one  way  seemed  open 
to  us,  and  that  was  to  invite  the  public  to  come  out  and  hear 
the  word  which  God  had  commissioned  us  to  preach.  The 
town  hall  was  secured  and  notice  given  to  the  public  that 
there  would  be  preaching  twice  on  Sunday,  and  each  evening 


526  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

of  the  week  following.  We  could  do  no  more,  and,  having 
circulated  the  notices  as  widely  as  possible,  we  awaited  the 
issue  with  some  anxiety,  but  without  any  fear.  I  can  not  do 
better  at  this  point  than  to  quote  from  an  account  written  by 
Mr.  Oldham  of  the  inception  of  this  work : 

"Sunday  morning  found  us  in  the  town  hall.  A  little  Estey 
organ — the  gift  to  Mrs.  Oldham  of  her  fellow-students  at  Mt.  Hoi- 
yoke — was  unpacked  and  pressed  into  service.  Miss  Battie  sat  at  the 
organ ;  Dr.  Thoburn  sat  on  a  small  improvised  platform  at  a  table ; 
Mrs.  Thoburn  led  the  singing;  while  I  played  usher,  and  handed 
round  the  hymn-books.  After  singing  and  prayer,  the  text  was  an- 
nounced :  '  Not  by  might  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  the 
Lord ;'  and  Dr.  Thoburn  proceeded  to  preach  the  first  Methodist  ser- 
mon ever  preached  in  Malaysia.  I  listened  with  some  wonder,  if  not 
doubt,  as  he  told  the  people,  among  other  things,  that  they  would 
come  again  and  again,  that  friends  would  come  with  them  and  some 
of  them  be  deeply  interested,  and  that  among  them  would  be  found 
those  who  would  seek  forgiveness  of  their  sins  and  peace  for  their 
souls.  '  Within  these  four  walls,'  he  said,  '  men  and  women  will  be 
converted  to  God.'  It  seemed  scarcely  credible  that  such  a  result  was 
close  at  hand,  but  it  turned  out  precisely  as  the  preacher  said.  The 
people  returned  again  and  again  in  larger  numbers,  and  when,  on  the 
fourth  evening,  an  opportunity  was  given  for  those  who  wished  to  seek 
God  to  express  that  desire,  a  stout,  strongly-built  Scotchman,  with 
tears  and  strong  emotion,  begged  that  he  might  be  prayed  for.  All 
through  the  room  were  others  moved  in  the  same  way.  Here  was  a 
slight  Eurasian  youth,  yonder  were  two  sisters  holding  each  other's 
hands,  and  encouraging  each  other  to  come  out  publicly  as  seekers  of 
salvation,  and,  best  of  all,  were  four  Tamils,  who  had  been  taught  in 
the  mission-schools  of  Ceylon,  but  who,  in  the  malarial  moral  atmos- 
phere of  those  islands,  had  lapsed  into  open  idolatry,  and  were  now 
stricken  in  conscience  and  deeply  penitent  and  ashamed  of  their 
apostasy.  The  meetings  were  continued,  and  at  the  end  of  two  weeks 
a  considerable  number  had  been  converted,  and  their  testimony  was 
heard  to  the  great  help  of  the  services." 

As  I  was  obliged  to  leave  at  the  close  of  the  third  week, 
we  lost  no  time  in  organizing  a  church.  The  number  of  con- 
versions had  not  been  large,  but  organization  is  a  law  of  life 


THE  MALA  YSIAN  MISSION.  527 

and  growth,  and  we  lost  no  time  in  giving  our  new  converts 
all  the  advantages  which  it  confers.  After  stating  our  rules 
and  conditions  of  membership,  seventeen  persons  publicly 
cast  in  their  lot  with  us,  two  of  whom  were  at  once  admitted 
to  full  membership,  having  previously  been  connected  with 
the  English  Methodists,  while  the  other  fifteen  were  received 
on  probation.  A  Quarterly  Conference  was  organized,  but 
from  among  our  little  band  there  seemed  only  three  who  were 
fitted  to  serve  as  office-bearers  in  the  infant  church.  I  quote 
again  from  Mr.  Oldham : 

"  We  proceeded  to  elect  all  the  officers  that  were  necessary  for  the 
administration  of  the  church,  and  after  we  had  named  the  same  men 
over  and  over  again  for  all  the  offices  that  Methodism  knows,  we 
finally  came  to  a  most  important  question:  Who  shall  be  the  estimat- 
ing committee  to  estimate  the  pastor's  salary?  John  Polglase  was 
named.  Dr.  Thoburn  then  proceeded  to  explain  to  Brother  Polglase 
and  the  other  two  brethren,  F.  J.  Benjafield  and  Maurice  Drummond, 
that  the  estimating  committee's  business  was  to  tell  how  much  they 
thought  it  would  cost  a  preacher  and  his  wife  to  live,  and  then  devise 
means  for  obtaining  that  amount.  John  Polglase  saw  the  difficulty  of 
the  situation.  Brother  and  Sister  Oldham  were  to  be  left  with  this 
little  church,  and  were  to  be  cared  for  by  the  stewards,  and  he  was  to 
tell  how  much  it  would  cost  and  how  the  money  was  to  be  had.  Dr. 
Thoburn  looked  at  him  with  deep  concern,  and  said,  'Brother  Pol- 
glase, do  you  think  it  can  be  done?'  and  Brother  Polglase,  with  a  quiet 
twinkle  in  his  eye,  which  you  will  find  in  all  really  useful  men,  turned 
to  Brother  Oldham  and  said, '  If  Brother  Oldham  can  stand  it,  we  can ;' 
and  with  this  arrangement  it  was  settled  that  the  church  now  begun 
should  be  continued." 

Two  days  later  we  took  passage  on  our  return  to  Cal- 
cutta, leaving  our  good  Brother  Oldham  alone  at  his  post.  He 
occupied  a  most  trying  position.  A  small  salary  had  been 
pledged  for  his  support — a  little  over  seven  hundred  dollars, 
if  I  remember  correctly — but  Singapore  is  a  very  expensive 
town,  and  the  financial  outlook  was  anything  but  cheering. 
The  man,  however,  seemed  made  for  the  occasion,  and  reso- 
lutely went  to  work  in  a  spirit  which  recognized  no  difficul- 


528  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

ties  and  anticipated  no  failure.  Among  his  members  he  was 
soon  permitted  to  number  one  Chinaman,  a  Christian,  who 
had  some  years  before  been  baptized  in  another  mission,  and 
through  this  man  he  tried  to  gain  access  to  the  large  Chinese 
community  of  the  place.  For  a  time  he  was  unsuccessful  in 
this  effort.  The  ordinary  European  in  those  parts  is  accus- 
tomed to  treat  the  Chinese  with  a  certain  hauteur,  which 
prevents  anything  like  intimate  or  confidential  intercourse ; 
and  hence,  while  the  missionary  was  always  treated  politely, 
he  felt  that  he  was  held  at  a  distance,  and  had  no  close  ac- 
cess to  the  people.  At  length,  however,  God  opened  his 
way  in  a  most  unexpected  manner.  Walking  down  a  street 
in  the  Chinese  quarter,  his  attention  was  one  day  drawn  to 
a  sign  above  a  doorway  :  "  Celestial  Reasoning  Association." 
On  inquiry,  he  learned  from  his  Christian  Chinaman  that  a 
debating  society  was  held  in  that  place,  where  the  young 
Chinese  of  the  city  were  accustomed  to  meet  and  debate 
questions  for  the  improvement  of  their  English.  The  mis- 
sionary at  once  proposed  to  become  a  member  of  the  club, 
but  was  politely  informed  that  none  but  Chinese  were  ad- 
mitted to  it.  He  then  offered  to  deliver  a  lecture  before  the 
club,  if  he  might  be  allowed  that  privilege,  and  his  offer  was 
immediately  accepted.  He  chose  for  his  subject,  "Astron- 
omy," and  provided  himself  with  a  blackboard  and  colored 
crayons,  by  which  he  succeeded  in  making  his  lecture  intel- 
ligible to  his  hearers.  The  lecture  was  delivered,  not  in  the 
club-room,  but  in  the  residence  of  one  of  the  leading 
Chinese  residents,  and  all  the  leaders  of  Chinese  society , 
were  present.  A  sumptuous  repast  was  served  up  at  the 
close,  and  the  lecturer  was  treated  with  the  most  distin- 
guished consideration.  At  a  single  stroke  he  had  won,  not 
only  the  respect,  but  also  the  confidence  of  the  men  whose 
influence  he  most  valued.  The  Consul-General  of  China  pre- 
sided, and  in  an  address  at  the  close  of  the  lecture,  compli- 
mented the  missionary  in  the  most  cordial  manner,  while 
all  present  made  him  feel  that  they  appreciated  the  favor 


THE  MALA  YSIAN  MISSION.  529 

which  he  had  conferred  upon  them.     I  can  not  do  better 
than  to  quote  again  from  Mr.  Oldham : 

"That  evening  was  laid  the  foundation  of  our  mission-work 
among  the  Chinese.  A  day  or  two  afterward,  the  host  at  whose 
house  the  party  had  been  entertained,  wrote  and  asked  me  if  I  would 
be  willing  to  serve  him  as  a  private  tutor.  I  was  a  self-supporting 
missionary,  with  a  slim  handful  of  members.  I  had  been  trying 
hard  to  get  among  the  Chinese.  Here  was  a  Chinese  gentleman  offer- 
ing me  good  wages  and  the  opportunity  of  personal  intercourse.  It 
seemed  providential,  and  I  promptly  accepted  the  offer,  and  became 
the  private  tutor  of  the  wealthy  and  influential  gentleman,  Mr.  Tan 
Keong  Saik.  Some  weeks  after,  at  a  great  public  dinner,  when  the 
Governor  and  the  leading  officials  were  present,  Mr.  Keong  Saik  made 
one  of  the  speeches  of  the  evening.  It  was  exceedingly  happy  and 
very  effective,  and  great  credit  was  gained  among  the  Chinese  for 
their  orator's  tutor,  and  he  immediately  began  to  be  in  demand.  I 
preferred,  however,  the  teaching  of  the  children  to  the  tutoring  of 
their  fathers,  and  therefore  proposed  to  the  Chinese  merchants  that 
they  should  open  a  school,  to  which,  not  they,  but  their  children, 
should  come.  They  accepted  the  offer,  and  a  house  was  selected  in 
the  heart  of  the  city,  and  a  teacher  for  the  Chinese  language  secured. 
I  myself  taught  in  the  English,  and  the  school  within  a  week  num- 
bered thirty-six  boys.  It  continued  to  increase  until  one  day  it  was 
proposed  by  one  of  the  Chinese  that  I  build  a  house  more  centrally 
located,  on  a  piece  of  ground  which  had  already  been  given  by  the 
Government.  The  enterprise  was  at  once  taken  in  hand,  and  the 
cost  of  the  building  was  paid  by  the  Chinese,  one  gentleman  heading 
the  subscription  with  five  hundred  dollars.  Soon  after  this  it  was 
thought  advisible  to  open  a  boarding-school  in  connection  with  the 
day-school.  This,  too,  increased  so  rapidly  that  it  became  necessary 
to  buy  a  new  property,  and  the  proposal  was  made  that  the  Chinese 
should  contribute  one-half  of  the  amount  if  the  Missionary  Society ' 
in  America  would  contribute  the  other  half.  The  conduct  of  this 
enterprise  was  intrusted  to  an  influential  Chinese  banker,  Mr.  Tan 
Jiak  Kim,  and  the  missionary  had  simply  nothing  to  do  except  state 
the  amount  necessary  to  be  collected.  To  my  amazement  and  very 
great  pleasure,  in  the  course  of  six  weeks  Mr.  Jiak  Kim  reported  that 
the  amount  of  six  thousand  two  hundred  dollars — four  hundred  more 
than  had  been  asked  for — had  been  collected  among  the  Chinese, 
Mr.  Jiak  Kirn  himself  heading  the  subscription  with  a  splendid 

34 


530  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

donation  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  I  cite  these  facts  to  show  the  new 
ideas  of  the  cultivated  Chinese,  and  their  exceeding  liberality  where 
they  have  confidence  in  the  missionaries." 

To  the  above  testimony  I  ought  to  add  that  when  our 
missionary,  during  the  first  year  of  his  residence  in  Singa- 
pore, undertook  the  erection  of  a  church  for  our  English 
congregation,  among  the  subscribers  was  one  of  these  Chinese 
gentlemen,  who  actually  gave  five  hundred  dollars,  which 
was  the  largest  contribution  given  by  any  one  for  this  enter- 
prise. This  Chinaman,  be  it  remembered,  was  what  people 
in  America  would  call  a  heathen,  and  if  he  wanted  to  come 
to  the  port  of  New  York,  he  would  not  be  permitted  to  land 
upon  our  so-called  Christian  shores.  The  wretched  pol- 
troons who  make  laws  for  us  at  Washington,  in  their  un- 
righteous and  cowardly  haste  to  win  votes  from  the  most 
worthless  classes  to  be  found  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  have  made 
it  impossible  for  Chinese  gentlemen,  who  are  gentlemen  in 
every  good  sense  of  the  word,  to  be  accorded  the  simplest 
rights  of  human  beings  when  they  visit  the  shores  of  our 
great  Republic.  Well  did  Senator  Sherman  remark  that  in 
the  whole  course  of  his  connection  with  the  United  States 
Congress,  he  had  never  known  a  piece  of  legislation  so 
vicious  as  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Act.  It  is  a  shame  and  a 
scandal,  and  our  country  is  disgraced  every  day  that  it  re- 
mains upon  the  statute-book. 

Members  of  our  mission  have  visited  Borneo,  Java, 
Sumatra,  and  parts  of  the  peninsula,  for  the  purpose  of  ex- 
amining the  general  situation,  and  prospecting  for  suitable 
stations  to  be  occupied  in  the  future.  Two  brethren,  Drs. 
West  and  Leuring,  pushed  up  a  large  river  in  Western 
Borneo  to  a  region  inhabited  by  the  Dyaks,  a  race  of  peo- 
ple inhabiting  the  greater  part  of  the  interior  of  that  great 
island.  These  are  an  interesting,  but  wild  and  somewhat 
savage  people,  and  are  noted  for  their  notorious  habit  of 
"  head  hunting."  No  man  is  considered  deserving  of  much 
esteem  until  he  has  killed  at  least  one  enemy;  and  the  skull 


THE  MALA  YSIAN  MISSION. 


531 


of  every  victim  is  carried  home  aud  suspended  under  the 
roof,  immediately  above  the  family  seated  on  the  floor.  The 
skulls  are  used  to  adorn  nearly  every  hut,  and  bear  a  horri- 
ble testimony  to  the  low  moral  state  of  the  people.  But 
these  poor  creatures  must  be  reached;  and,  although  we  may 


GROUP  OF   DYAKS. 


have  to  delay  for  a  little  while,  sooner  or  later  we  expect 
to  be  found  doing  our  part  in  making  Christ  known  to  the 
Dyaks  and  other  inhabitants  of  Borneo. 

Java  is  the  most  populous  and  prosperous  island  of  the 
Malaysian  group.  Dr.  Oldham  visited  Batavia  a  few  years 
ago,  by  invitation  of  the  Dutch  and  German  missionaries,  and 


532  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

made  careful  inquiries  about  the  opening  for  missionary 
work  on  the  island,  but  his  conclusion  was  that  we  were 
more  urgently  needed  in  Borneo,  Sumatra,  and  on  the  pen- 
insula. It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  as  showing  the  far-reaching 
influence  of  our  Anglo-Chinese  school  at  Singapore,  that 
Chinese  youths  are  sent  to  that  institution  from  Batavia,  as 
well  as  from  Bankok,  in  Siam,  and  from  Borneo,  and  other 
far  distant  points. 

More  than  half  a  century  ago  two  American  missionaries 
belonging  to  the  American  Board  tried  to  enter  Sumatra  from 
the  south,  but  perished  in  the  attempt.  I  quote  from  "  Mis- 
sionary Addresses,"  published  in  1888  : 

"  For  some  days  all  went  well ;  but  one  afternoon,  as  they  were 
nearing  a  village,  they  were  suddenly  set  upon  by  men  who  had  been 
lying  in  ambush,  and  in  a  few  minutes  both  were  murdered.  The 
body  of  one  of  them  furnished  a  repast  to  the  savages  that  evening, 
and  the  other  was  eaten  the  following  morning.  The  mothers  of  both 
these  young  martyrs  were  widows.  When  the  dreadful  tidings  reached 
this  country,  the  mother  of  one  of  them,  Henry  Lyman,  was  alone  at 
home.  Henry  had  been  the  eldest  born,  and  the  other  children  were 
at  school.  The  widow's  brother  called,  and  soon  he  was  followed  by 
her  pastor,  and  only  too  soon  she  knew  they  were  the  bearers  of  heavy 
tidings.  When  she  learned  that  her  son  was  dead,  the  stricken  mother 
was  so  prostrated  that  she  threw  herself  upon  a  couch,  and  seemed  like 
one  utterly  crushed.  In  the  meantime  the  children  had  been  called 
from  school,  and  when  they  came  in,  the  bereaved  mother  rose,  gath- 
ered them  around  her,  and  asked  that  the  letters  be  read.  Up  to  this 
time  she  had  supposed  that  her  son  had  died  at  home,  with  his  wife  by 
his  bedside,  and  that  a  green  grave  in  that  distant  land  would  mark  the 
spot  where  his  ashes  rested.  But  as  the  letters  were  read,  the  awful 
truth  flashed  upon  her  that  her  son  had  been  murdered ;  and  as  they 
read  on,  the  horrible  fact  was  added  that  his  body  had  been  eaten  by 
cannibals.  The  poor  suffering  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ,  heart-broken 
and  crushed  as  she  was,  ready  to  sink  as  she  had  seemed  but  the  mo- 
ment before,  after  a  groan  of  unutterable  anguish,  exclaimed:  'O, 
what  can  those  poor  people  do  without  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ?' 
And  when  the  reading  was  finished,  and  she  was  able  to  join  in  the 
conversation,  she  said :  '  I  bless  God  who  gave  me  such  a  son  to  go  to 


THE  MALA  YSIAN  MISSION. 


'533 


the  heathen,  and  I  never  felt  so  strongly  as  I  do  this  moment  the  de- 
sire that  some  other  of  my  children  may  become  missionaries,  and  go 
to  teach  those  savage  men  who  have  slain  Henry.' " 

During  Dr.  Oldham's  visit  to  Java  he  met  two  Christian 
young  men  from  Sumatra,  belonging  to  the  very  tribe  among 


DYAK  WOMEN. 

whom  these  young  men  had  lost  their  lives,  and  was  cordially 
invited  by  them  to  their  own  Battak  valley  of  Sumatra. 
The  missionary  smiled,  and  said  to  the  young  man:  "Your 
people  did  not  treat  our  missionaries  very  kindly  when  they 
first  went  there."  "  It  is  true,"  said  the  youth,  "  we  did  not 
treat  them  well,  then;  but  that  was  a  long  time  ago.  If 


534  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

you  will  come  with  me  to  the  Battaks  now,  I  will  promise 
that  we  will  not  eat  you." 

Space  will  not  permit  me  to  write  the  full  history  of  our 
infant  mission  at  Singapore,  although  its  history  possesses 
some  extraordinary  features  worthy  both  .of  record  and  of 
study.  For  several  years  the  work  was  carried  on  without 
any  aid  whatever  from  the  Missionary  Society.  The  mission- 
aries were  of  one  mind  and  of  one  heart  in  all  they  did,  and 
for  a  time,  like  the  primitive  Christians,  had  all  things  in 
common,  eating  at  a  common  table,  drawing  their  allowances 
from  a  common  purse,  and  working  on  a  common  basis.  This 
practical  devotion  enabled  them  to  accomplish  wonders,  and 
the  visitor  to  Singapore  is  now  amazed  to  see  the  evidences 
of  progress  which  are  found  on  every  side.  The  Anglo-Chi- 
nese school  has  now  an  attendance  of  over  four  hundred  and 
fifty  students,  and  is  said  to  be  the  largest  Chinese  mission- 
school  in  any  part  of  the  world.  A  spacious  building  for  its 
accommodation  will  soon  be  erected.  A  printing-press  has 
been  founded,  and  is  entering  upon  a  career  which  gives 
promise  of  widely  extended  usefulness.  A  mission  among 
the  Tamil  colonists  has  also  been  established,  and  is  doing  a 
good  work.  Conversions  among  the  Chinese  have  been  fre- 
quent during  the  past  two  or  three  years,  and  the  Chinese 
church  at  Singapore  is  rapidly  gaining  ground.  A  mission 
has  also  been  planted  in  the  great  city  of  Penang,  where  two 
missionaries  are  at  work,  and  where  an  Anglo-Chinese  school, 
established  only  a  year  ago,  is  making  rapid  headway.  A 
Chinese  preacher  has  been  stationed  at  Malacca,  and  the  pros- 
pects of  his  work  are  said  to  be  encouraging.  Preaching  is 
regularly  carried  on  in  the  Malay  tongue,  but  up  to  the  pres- 
ent time  no  special  opening  has  been  secured  among  the 
Malay  people.  As  they  are  all  Mohammedans  in  that  region, 
we  find  them,  as  we  have  always  found  them  in  India,  very 
much  less  accessible  to  the  gospel  than  Hindus  or  Buddhists. 
Woman's  work  has  also  received  due  recognition.  Miss 


THE  MALAYSIAN  MISSION.  .  535 

Blackmore,  of  Australia,  was  the  first  missionary  appointed 
by  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  to  the  charge  of 
this  work.  She  has  laid  good  and  strong  foundations,  and  it 
is  expected  that  a  strong  re-enforcement  will  join  her  in  the 
course  of  a  few  months.  One  of  our  missionaries  has  been 
some  months  in  Borneo,  and  made  an  attempt  to  establish  a 
permanent  work  there ;  but  difficulties  of  various  kinds  stood 
in  his  way,  and  for  the  present  he  has  been  recalled.  We  are 
urgently  invited  to  open  a  station  in  the  great  island  of 
Sumatra,  which  lies  nearer  at  hand,  and  we  are  also  invited 
to  establish  stations  at  several  points  on  the  peninsula.  In 
fact,  invitations  to  open  work  among  the  Chinese  have  been 
received  from  various  distant  points,  and  it  seems  altogether 
probable  that  in  the  future  our  work  among  these  interesting 
people  will  have  a  very  wide  extension.  It  would  give  me 
pleasure  to  state,  even  in  brief  outline,  the  work  of  the  vari- 
ous missionaries  who  have  taken  part  in  this  interesting  mis- 
sion ;  but  space  will  not  permit.  At  a  later  day,  a  full  history 
of  the  development  of  this  most  interesting  work  will,  no 
doubt,  be  written ;  and  when  it  does  appear,  it  will  furnish  a 
record  of  rare  devotion  and  most  direct  and  practical  Chris- 
tian effort,  and  of  signal  success  in  following  the  lines  marked 
out  by  Providence. 

Mr.  Oldham  was  obliged  to  return  to  America  in  1890, 
owing  to  a  serious  failure  of  health ;  but  he  expects  to  re- 
turn either  to  Singapore  or  some  other  part  of  the  Eastern 
world  in  the  early  future.  Two  years  ago  he  received  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Allegheny  College,  and 
wherever  he  goes  he  is  most  kindly  received  in  the  American 
churches.  He  has  done  a  good  and  great  work  at  Singapore, 
not  the  least  part  of  which  was  his  quick  but  thorough  under- 
standing of  the  Chinaman's  character,  and  his  success  in  in- 
terpreting it  to  others.  A  little  before  midnight  of  the  night 
before  he  sailed  from  Singapore,  he  was  reclining  on  the 
steamer's  deck  when  a  Chinaman  came  to  him,  and  asked 


536  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

permission  to  speak.  This  being  granted,  he  proceeded  in 
the  most  delicate  manner  to  ask  the  weary  and  sick  missionary 
to  accept  a  little  present,  and,  slipping  a  hundred  dollars  into 
his  hands,  hastened  away.  And  yet  this  man  can  not  visit 
Dr.  Oldham  in  our  "  free  "  and  Christian  America !  O  Lord, 
how  long? 


Cl>apbcr   XLL 

THE  LATEST  REPORT. 

IT  may  be  well  to  insert  near  the  close  of  this  volume  the 
official  report  submitted  by  me  to  the  General  Conference 
at  its  session  held  in  Omaha,  May,  1892.  This  report  covers 
the  last  four  years,  and  gives  a  brief  outline  of  the  recent 
progress  and  present  condition  of  the  work.  It  is  given 
without  any  amendment,  except  the  omission  of  one  brief 
paragraph. 

DEAR  FATHERS  AND  BRETHREN, — Before  attempting  to 
give  an  account  of  my  stewardship  as  superintendent  of  your 
missions  in  India  and  Malaysia  during  the  past  four  years,  it 
may  be  well  to  sketch  briefly  the  extent  and  nature  of  our 
work  in  those  great  mission-fields.  The  mere  words  India 
and  Malaysia  convey  a  very  imperfect  idea  to  the  average 
observer  in  America,  and  in  the  case  of  our  missions  in  those 
vast  regions  are  very  apt  to  mislead.  The  India  of  to-day 
is  not  the  name  of  a  single  country,  but  of  a  mighty  empire 
made  up  of  various  countries  in  southern  Asia,  and  contain- 
ing one-fifth  of  the  entire  population  of  the  globe.  Malay- 
sia is  a  name  given  to  the  vast  region  peopled  by  the  vari- 
ous branches  of  the  Malay  race,  embracing  the  Malay  pen- 
insula and  the  great  islands  of,  and  island  groups  in,  the 
adjacent  seas.  We  do  not  have  a  mission  in  each  of  these 
regions,  but  a  series  of  missions,  widely  separated  from  one 
another,  and  operating  among  peoples  of  different  nationalities 
and  speaking  different  languages. 

To  get  a  correct  idea  of  the  vast  extent  of  our  field,  and 
the  gigantic  proportions  of  the  task  which  we  have  tinder- 

537 


538  IXDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

taken,  let  me  ask  you  to  transfer  in  mind  the  work  to  Eu- 
rope, where  you  have  a  more  familiar  perspective.  India 
proper  is  about  equal  to  Europe  west  of  Russia,  aud  contains 
more  nationalities  distinct  in  character  and  diverse  in  lan- 
guage than  Europe.  If,  now,  a  work  corresponding  to  ours 
were  to  be  established  in  Europe,  it  would  be  necessary,  in 
addition  to  existing  missions,  to  open  new  missions  in  France, 
Spain,  Portugal,  Greece,  Hungary,  Poland,  and  Bohemia, 
and  then  to  cross  the  Mediterranean  and  occupy  Egypt  to 
correspond  to  Burma,  and  next  proceed  far  down  the  Afri- 
can coast  to  find  a  region  to  correspond  to  Malaysia.  Our 
missionaries  to-day  are  preaching  in  thirteen  different  lan- 
guages, and  among  their  converts  may  be  found  representa- 
tives of  as  many  great  nationalities.  Hence  it  would  be 
more  accurate,  and  certainly  less  misleading,  if  instead  of 
speaking  of  our  "  mission  in  India,"  we  spoke  of  our  mis- 
sions in  Southern  Asia. 

But  the  magnitude  of  our  task  is  very  imperfectly  indi- 
cated by  the  geographical  extent  of  the  field  occupied,  or 
even  the  immense  population  among  which  we  are  working. 

We  preach  in  many  tongues,  and  yet  weld  our  Confer- 
ences together  into  one  organic  body.  We  win  converts 
from  many  different  castes,  and  yet  induct  all  into  the  same 
church,  aud  teach  them  to  be  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  We  en- 
counter cultured  men  of  thought  to-day  and  illiterate  peas- 
ants to-morrow.  We  have  schools  in  which  the  pupils  write 
in  the  sand  under  a  village  tree,  and  colleges  in  which  they 
pursue  a  course  quite  equal  to  that  of  your  American  univer- 
sities. We  maintain  our  church  organization  and  all  the 
familiar  features  of  our  Methodism  system,  and  yet  adapt 
our  machinery  and  methods  to  the  practical  wants  of  the 
most  conservative  people  on  the  globe.  We  are  called  upon 
to  create  a  literature  in  many  tongues,  to  found  and  equip 
schools  and  colleges,  to  train  preachers  soon  to  be  numbered 
by  the  thousand,  to  teach  the  poorest  of  all  living  men  how 
to  be  self-dependent,  and  the  most  dependent  of  all  Chris- 


THE  LA  TEST  REPOR  T.  539 

tians  to  maintain  self-supporting  churches.  We  are  building 
on  imperial  foundations,  and  need  the  highest  wisdom  which 
God's  grace  and  human  experience  can  impart.  Whether 
we  view  our  work  in  outline,  glancing  only  at  its  magnificent 
proportions,  or  examine  it  in  detail,  we  are  alike  impressed 
with  the  conviction  that  seldom,  if  ever,  in  the  history  of  any 
church  has  a  task  so  full  of  difficulty,  and  yet  so  full  of  prom- 
ise, been  committed  to  any  body  of  God's  servants. 

I  have  referred  to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  comparison 
as  to  geographical  extent  and  diversity  of  nationalities,  but  in 
one  important  respect  the  comparison  fails.  India  is  polit- 
ically and  commercially  one,  while  Europe  is  many.  While 
it  is  true  that  some  Indian  rulers  still  sit  upon  the  throne  of 
their  ancestors,  yet  their  States  are  feudatory,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  empire  is  everywhere  recognized  as  supreme. 
Internal  wars  have  ceased,  probably  forever,  and  the  mighty 
armaments  of  Europe  will  never  have  their  counterparts 
among  the  great  nations  in  India,  which  are  being  welded 
together  into  one  of  the  world's  greatest  empires.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  rulers,  of  the  highest  courts,  of  the  legislative 
councils,  and  every  public  assembly  in  which  men  of  differ- 
ent races  meet  together,  is  English.  Living  and  working  in 
such  an  empire,  and  in  the  midst  of  such  influences,  we  are 
not  only  able  to  maintain  a  large  measure  of  practical  unity  in 
our  operations,  but  we  are  compelled  to  do  so.  Our  brethren 
in  Europe  occupy  a  very  different  field.  Sweden  and  Italy 
have  little  in  common,  and  can  have  but  little.  Denmark 
and  Bulgaria  are  as  widely  separated  in  interest  as  if  an  ocean 
rolled  between  them.  In  India,  on  the  other  hand,  our  work 
is  one,  and  must  be  one.  Our  more  intelligent  converts  in 
the  most  remote  districts  watch  with  intense  interest  every 
new  development  of  the  work  in  the  empire,  while  one  and 
all  are  bound  together  by  a  peculiar  interest  and  affection 
which  assure  us  that,  as  a  people  in  India,  we  are  and  must 
continue  to  be  one. 

Years  ago  many  of  our  missionaries  began  to  feel  the  need 


540  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

of  some  peculiar  central  organization,  adapted  to  our  excep- 
tional situation,  and  designed  to  bind  our  scattered  mission- 
aries more  closely  together,  and  foster  the  growth  of  such 
institutions  as  God  in  his  providence  might  plant  among  us. 
The  rapid  and  wide  extension  of  our  work  during  the  decade 
of  1870-80  did  much  to  deepen  this  conviction,  and  finally  a 
plan  was  drawn  up  for  what  was  called  a  Delegated  Confer- 
ence, and  a  memorial  sent  to  the  General  Conference  of  1880, 
asking  for  its  formal  sanction.  The  proposal  was  a  novel 
one,  and,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  created  serious  in- 
quiry, if  not  positive  alarm,  in  the  minds  of  many  of  our 
leading  men.  It  looked  like  a  General  Conference  in  em- 
bryo, and  to  those  who  failed  to  realize  our  peculiar  situation 
in  India  it  seemed  unnecessary,  or  at  best  wholly  premature. 
Four  years  later,  however,  it  was  viewed  with  less  disfavor, 
and  under  another  name  was  formally  authorized  by  the 
General  Conference.  The  Central  Conference  of  India  is  a 
body  unique  in  Methodism ;  but  it  has  already  more  than 
vindicated  its  right  to  exist.  It  is  not  a  General  Confer- 
ence, but  it  deals  with  many  interests  which  the  General 
Conference  would  care  for  if  India  wrere  near  at  hand,  and 
if  your  limited  time  was  not  already  overtaxed.  It  has 
held  four  biennial  sessions,  and  now  seems  as  indispensable 
to  our  welfare  as  the  Annual  Conferences  themselves. 

In  addition  to  this  Central  Conference,  w«  have  three 
Annual  Conferences  and  one  Mission  Conference,  with  sev- 
enteen presiding  elders'  districts  and  fourteen  District  Con- 
ferences. Connected  with  each  Annual  and  District  Confer- 
ence, we  have  a  properly  organized  Woman's  Conference, 
meeting  at  the  same  time  and  place,  and  taking  full  cogni- 
zance of  all  the  varied  interests  of  our  woman's  work.  These 
Conferences  of  our  faithful  sisters  have  come  into  being,  and 
have  had  their  organization  perfected  from  time  to  time,  by 
the  natural  exigencies  of  the  situation,  rather  than  by  the 
design  of  any  person  or  party  connected  with  our  work.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  determine  the  date  of  the  first  orgauiza- 


THE  LA  TEST  REPOR  T.  541 

tion  of  the  kind ;  but  when  once  planted,  their  growth  be- 
came wonderful  in  its  way,  and  their  influence  is  becoming 
more  marked  and  beneficial  every  year.  They  have  courses 
of  study  adapted  to  the  various  grades  of  workers,  and,  from 
the  missionary's  wife  to  the  humblest  Bible-reader,  every  fe- 
male worker  feels  that  her  work  is  recognized  by  the  church, 
and  that  she  is  responsible  to  the  church  for  a  right  perform- 
ance of  her  duty.  Perhaps  I  might  be  pardoned  if  I  venture 
to  say  that  nowhere  else  in  Methodism,  if  indeed  anywhere 
else  in  Christendom,  is  woman's  work  so  fully  recognized  and 
so  thoroughly  organized  as  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  India. 

The  District  Conference  in  India  occupies  a  much  more 
important  position  than  in  the  United  States.  The  District 
Conference  had  been  organized  in  India  and  had  been  in 
successful  operation  several  years  before  it  was  formally  in- 
corporated into  the  Discipline  of  the  church.  We  had  a 
large  number  of  native  workers  who  did  not  seem  qualified 
for  membership  in  the  Annual  Conference,  and  yet  it  was 
felt  that  they  needed  the  advantages  which  organization  al- 
ways bestows,  and  the  District  Conference  was  created  chiefly 
for  their  benefit.  It  is,  I  believe,  an  historical  fact  not  gen- 
erally known,  that  the  District  Conference,  as  it  exists  now 
in  the  Discipline,  was  in  the  first  place  borrowed  from  our 
Indian  model.  But  the  District  Conference  in  India  has 
boldly  added  to  its  functions  as  necessity  has  called  for  such 
action,  and  in  some  respects  is  a  more  important  body  than 
the  Annual  Conference.  As  agents  of  the  Missionary  Soci- 
ety, our  local  preachers  and  exhorters  are  all  subject  to  ap- 
pointment and  removal,  and  hence  our  itinerant  policy  is 
applied  to  members  of  the  District  Conference  as  rigorously 
as  to  the  members  of  the  Annual  Conference.  The  appoint- 
ments are  made  by  a  cabinet  composed  of  the  preachers  in 
charge  and  presiding  elders — the  bishop,  if  present,  presiding — 
and  the  most  obscure  worker  has  his  appointment  as  formally 
announced  as  if  he  were  a  presiding  elder.  A  course  of 


542  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

study,  extending  over  eight  years,  is  provided  for  the  ex- 
horters  and  local  preachers,  and  the  examinations  are  faith* 
fully  exacted.  The  Annual  Conference  is  numerically  a 
much  smaller  body  than  an  ordinary  District  Conference, 
and  is  composed  of  those  who  are,  more  or  less,  representa- 
tive men. 

Having  thus  given  a  brief  sketch  of  our  field  and  of  some 
peculiarities  of  our  organization,  let  me  proceed  to  speak  of 
the  progress  of  our  work  during  the  past  four  years. 

The  year  1888  was  an  important  and,  in  some  respects,  a 
critical  period  in  our  history.  The  South  India  Conference, 
which  at  one  time  covered  almost  the  whole  territory  of  the 
empire,  had  made  an  earnest  effort  to  plant  missions  among 
the  heathen  without  aid  from  the  Missionary  Society,  but, 
after  ten  years  of  heroic  struggling,  had  yielded  to  the  inev- 
itable, and  at  the  beginning  of  1888  received  appropriations 
which  were  intended  to  furnish  a  permanent  basis  for  a  widely 
extended  work.  At  the  beginning  of  the  preceding  year 
Bishop  Ninde,  under  the  authority  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence, had  divided  the  immense  territory  of  this  Conference 
into  two  Annual  Conferences,  known  respectively  as  the  South 
India  and  Bengal.  At  the  same  time  the  territory  of  the 
North  India  Conference  had  been  enlarged  to  almost  double 
its  former  dimensions,  and  we  thus  seemed  to  be  organized 
and  prepared  for  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  our  vast  work. 
Unfortunately,  however,  the  General  Committee  of  1888, 
when  confronted  by  a  heavy  debt,  felt  constrained  to  make  a 
reduction  of  fifteen  per  cent  in  our  appropriations,  and  con- 
tinued this  reduction  for  three  successive  years.  The  North 
India  Conference  was  in  a  measure  prepared  for  such  an 
emergency;  but  to  the  two  new  Conferences  the  reduction 
could  not  have  happened  at  a  less  opportune  time.  They 
had  assumed  heavy  obligations,  had  occupied  new  stations, 
received  new  missionaries,  and  were  depending  absolutely 
upon  increased  appropriations,  instead  of  which  they  were 
compelled  to  reduce  expenditures,  and  either  retreat  or  hold 


THE  LATEST  REPORT.  543 

their  ground  in  comparative  inactivity.  I  mention  this  fact, 
not  by  way  of  complaint,  but  as  a  just  explanation  of  the 
comparative  want  of  success  which  has  attended  the  labors 
of  some  of  our  missionaries.  Our  missionary  working  force 
has  been  seriously  reduced  in  both  of  the  new  Conferences. 
Instead  of  the  thirty-seven  American  missionaries  whom  we 
had  in  these  two  new  Conferences  in  1888,  we  have  now 
only  twenty-eight,  showing  a  reduction  of  nine  men  from 
this  country,  and  indicating  a  contraction  of  our  work  in 
many  places  and  in  many  directions. 

But  notwithstanding  this  unexpected  obstacle  to  our  prog- 
ress, God  has  blessed  our  faithful  workers,  and  I  am  most 
thankful  to  be  able  to  report  four  years  of  steady  growth  and 
uninterrupted  prosperity.  The  little  Malaysia  Mission  Con- 
ference has  trebled  its  membership  since  it  was  erected,  with 
your  sanction,  into  a  separate  mission  in  1888;  the  Bengal 
Conference  has  doubled  its  membership  twice  over;  the  South 
India  Conference  has  nearly  doubled  its  membership;  while 
the  grand  old  North  India  Conference,  the  mother  of  all  the 
growing  Indian  family  of  Conferences,  has  more  than  quad- 
rupled the  large  membership  with  which  she  entered  upon  the 
quadrenuium.  We  have  now  a  Christian  community  in  India 
of  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  souls,  and  a  membership,  in- 
cluding full  members  and  probationers,  of  over  thirty  thou- 
sand. All  through  these  past  four  years  we  have  had  inquirers 
coming  to  us  in  steadily  increasing  numbers,  and  the  latest  ad- 
vices indicate  no  signs  of  waning  interest.  We  now  receive 
more  converts  in  a  month  than  wre  used  to  receive  in  a  decade. 
The  sun  which  rose  upon  you  this  morning  went  down  upon 
fifty  converts  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe,  who  had  just  ex- 
changed the  worship  of  idols  for  the  service  of  the  living  God, 
and  every  day  you  tarry  here  will  witness  the  ingathering  of 
fifty  more.  When  I  return  to  my  field  I  shall  expect  to  greet 
ten  thousand  new  converts — men  and  women  who  were  wor- 
shiping idols  four  months  ago — as  confidently  as  I  shall  ex- 
pect to  find  the  mountains  in  their  places,  or  the  stars  keeping 


544  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

watch  in  the  silent  heavens.  God  is  truly  doing  great  things 
in  our  midst,  and  we  call  upon  the  whole  church  to  rejoice 
with  us  in  the  signal  tokens  for  good  which  he  is  giving  us. 

Next  to  our  church  membership  and  the  winning  of  con- 
verts from  heathenism,  the  most  encouraging  feature  of  our 
work  is  found  in  connection  with  our  Sunday-schools.  For 
more  than  twenty  years  we  have  given  special  attention  to  the 
Sunday-school,  and  have  spared  no  pains  to  adapt  it  to  the 
peculiar  wants  of  the  people;  and  now,  when  our  converts  are 
rapidly  multiplying  on  every  hand,  we  find  this  agency  inval- 
uable to  us.  At  our  last  Conferences  no  less  than  55,243 
scholars  were  reported  as  connected  with  our  1,376  Sunday- 
schools,  showing  an  increase  of  673  schools  and  28,658  pupils 
during  the  past  four  years.  It  is  probable  that  we  have  more 
Sunday-schools  and  more  scholars  enrolled  than  all  the  other 
churches  and  missions  in  the  empire  combined.  A  few  years 
ago  the  most  of  our  scholars  were  Hindus  and  Mohammedans, 
but  now  one-third  of  the  whole  number  are  Christians;  and 
probably  at  the  end  of  another  year  the  ratio  will  be  one-half. 
No  item  in  our  recent  table  of  statistics  is  more  significant, 
and  at  the  same  time  more  encouraging,  than  the  reported  in- 
crease of  9,679  Christian  children  and  young  people  in  our 
Sunday-schools.  It  can  not  but  happen  when  converts  are 
coming  to  us  in  such  large  numbers  that  many  of  them  will 
be  found  extremely  immature ;  but  we  need  not  despair  of 
the  general  community  so  long  as  we  find  one-half  of  the 
whole  number  baptized  during  the  past  year,  reporting  them- 
selves promptly  as  pupils  in  our  Sunday-schools. 

Education  takes  a  very  prominent  place  in  every  successful 
mission,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  we  feel  its  importance  in 
our  work  at  the  present  hour  more  than  ever  before.  God  has 
signally  blessed  our  educational  efforts  during  the  last  four 
years,  and,  although  greatly  straitened  by  the  reduction  of 
our  appropriations,  we  are  able  to  report  a  very  encouraging 
advance.  Instead  of  545  schools  of  all  grades,  as  reported  at 
the  beginning  of  1888,  we  now  have  1,039;  and  instead  of 


THE  LATEST  REPORT.  545 

14,412  pupils  we  are  now  able  to  report  29,083.  Here,  too,  we 
feel  most  perceptibly  the  influence  of  our  great  ingathering  of 
converts.  No  less  than  11,656  of  the  pupils  are  Christians, 
being  more  than  three  times  the  number  reported  four  years 
ago.  Most  of  these  schools  are  of  an  elementary  character,  but 
we  find  it  necessary  to  provide  schools  of  all  grades  for  pupils 
of  both  sexes.  We  believe  Christianity  must  boldly  assume 
and  maintain  a  leading  position  in  India,  and  hence  try  to  fit 
these  Christians,  who  have  the  proper  qualifications,  for  any 
situation  which  may  fall  to  their  lot.  We  have  eleven  high- 
schools  in  successful  operation,  and  also  two  colleges,  one  for 
men  and  one  for  women.  As  might  be  expected,  we  find  it  a 
most  formidable  undertaking  to  attempt  to  found  two  institu- 
tions of  college  grade  in  such  a  country  as  India,  but  we  are 
profoundly  convinced  that  we  must  have  them,  and  look  con- 
fidently to  God  and  the  Church  for  the  means  to  place  both 
of  them  upon  a  successful  working  basis. 

The  selection,  training,  and  proper  employment  of  an  in- 
digenous ministry  are  subjects  which  have  received  our  most 
careful  attention  since  the  first  beginning  of  our  work.  We 
have  always  fully  appreciated  the  fact  that  the  work  of  India's 
redemption  must  ultimately  be  accomplished  by  the  children 
of  the  soil,  and  hence  for  years  we  have  had  a  vigorous  theo- 
logical seminary  in  our  midst,  from  which  many  excellent  and 
able  men  have  gone  out  as  ministers  of  the  word.  This  insti- 
tution is  every  year  becoming  more  and  more  important  to  our 
growing  work,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  our  leaders 
must,  for  the  most  part,  come  from  its  halls.  But  the  leaders 
must  have  followers,  and  I  am  thankful  to  report  that  God 
is  raising  up  workers  of  all  grades  to  supply  our  urgent  needs. 
We  have  long  since  ceased  to  be  able  to  supply  a  trained 
preacher  for  each  new  band  of  converts;  but  in  the  absence 
of  an  experienced  helper,  we  take  the  best  man  to  be  found 
among  the  converts,  and  press  him  into  service  at  once.  Each 
of  these  leaders  is  expected  to  do  the  double  work  of  teacher 
and  preacher,  and  most  of  them  are  known  as  "pastor- 

35 


546  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSI.  1. 

teachers."  If  some  of  those  who  arc  thus  pressed  into  service 
prove  failures,  others  develop  into  splendid  workers,  and  give 
promise  of  great  usefulness  in  coming  years.  All  of  them 
are  more  or  less  formally  connected  with  the  District  Con- 
ference, and  receive  their  appointments  annually  in  due  form. 
In  a  field  like  ours,  and  especially  at  a  time  like  the  preseut, 
when  the  reaper  is  constantly  overtaking  the  sower,  we  can 
not  afford  to  neglect  any  worker  who  is  able  to  wield  a 
sickle,  and  by  using  every  one  who  can  work  we  are  able  to 
marshal  quite  a  host  for  service.  At  the  late  sessions  of  the 
Annual  and  District  Conferences,  beginning  on  the  first  of 
last  October  and  concluding  in  the  third  week  of  January, 
I  formally  appointed  no  less  than  1,178  Methodist  preachers 
to  the  work  for  the  current  year;  and  if  it  will  not  chill 
your  enthusiasm,  I  will  add  that,  during  the  same  time  and 
in  the  same  formal  manner,  I  appointed  no  less  than  575 
Christian  women  to  various  forms  of  Christian  work  in  con- 
nection with  the  same  Conferences. 

I  trust  that  no  one  will  be  startled  by  either  of  the  state- 
ments just  made.  The  honored  term,  "Methodist  preacher," 
is  not  usually  applied  to  men  learning  their  letters  in  mud- 
walled  hamlets,  but  I  have  used  the  words  deliberately  be- 
cause they  express  my  exact  meaning.  The  man  who  can 
skillfully  wield  an  ax  in  the  forest  is  a  woodman,  no  matter 
whether  he  be  half-clad  or  robed  like  a  king.  The  man  who 
can  persuade  his  fellow-men  to  turn  from  their  idols  to  the 
living  God,  and  from  the  service  of  Satan  to  the  discipleship 
of  Jesus  Christ,  is  a  true  preacher  of  the  word,  is  owned  of 
God  now,  and  will  be  owned  again  in  the  last  day.  I  think  it 
probable,  if  not  certain,  that  nine-tenths  of  our  converts  are 
gathered  in  by  these  humble  men,  themselves  recent  converts, 
who  succeed  in  reaching  men  of  their  own  class  as  strangers 
never  could  do.  We  shall  not  lose  sight  of  the  importance 
of  an  educated  ministry,  but  we  shall  be  equally  careful  not 
to  overlook  the  absolute  necessity  of  raising  up  from  the 
masses  a  ministry  for  the  masses.  Nor  have  we  been  rash  in 


THE  LA  TEST  REPOR  T.  54 7 

promoting  illiterate  men  to  positions  of  responsibility  for 
which  they  are  not  fitted.  Nearly  every  Indian  member  of 
our  Annual  Conference  has  passed  examinations  upon  a  course 
of  study  extending  over  twelve  consecutive  years.  You  may 
not  all  be  aware  that  here  in  the  United  States  a  less  careful 
policy  was  at  one  time  pursued,  and  that,  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  men  who  could  not  read  were  ordained,  and  admitted  to 
membership  in  Annual  Conferences,  and  in  not  very  remote 
years  some  of  these  men  have  voted  for  delegates  to  this 
body,  although  not  able  to  read  the  names  on  the  ballots 
which  they  cast. 

As  for  the  appointment  of  women  at  the  regular  sessions 
of  our  Women's  Conferences,  I  need  say  very  little.  We  are 
not  theorists,  and  have  no  time  for  the  study  of  purely  specu- 
lative questions ;  but  when  we  see  a  work  to  be  done,  and 
Christian  women  at  hand  to  do  it,  we  not  only  bid  them  take 
it  up  in  God's  name,  but  feel  it  our  duty  to  give  them  every 
advantage  which  thorough  organization  and  wise  supervision 
can  secure  to  them.  Of  woman  and  her  advancement  in 
modern  times  it  may  truly  be  said  that  she  has  worked  her 
way.  The  women  who  achieve  success  by  actual  work  are 
those  who  are  doing  most  to  elevate  their  sex,  both  in  point 
of  dignity  and  privilege,  and  we  believe  we  are  doing  our 
uttermost  for  the  future  advancement  of  the  women  of  India 
when  we  throw  wide  open  to  our  Christian  sisters  every 
sphere  of  labor  in  which  they  can  do  their  Master's  work. 

We  have  long  recognized  the  absolute  importance  of  our 
publishing  interests,  and  have  done  what  we  could  to  prepare 
for  the  inevitable  demand,  which  must  soon  be  made  upon  us, 
to  provide  a  Christian  literature  for  the  coming  millions  of  our 
Church  in  India.  Our  difficulties,  however,  are  many  and 
grave.  The  Missionary  Society  has  never  been  able  to  give 
any  substantial  assistance  to  this  department  of  our  work. 
The  Sunday-school  Union  assists  to  a  limited  extent,  and  the 
Tract  Society  would  gladly  help  us  most  liberally  but  for  the 
unfortunate  policy  or  habit  of  most  of  our  pastors  and 


548  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

churches,  which  forbids  a  bona  Jide  collection  for  this  cause. 
We  are  pushing  forward  as  best  we  can,  and  have  now  four 
publishing-houses,  located  respectively  at  Lucknow,  Calcutta, 
Madras,  and  Singapore.  We  are  printing  in  nine  different 
languages,  and  as  our  converts  multiply  we  must  provide,  not 
only  periodicals,  school-books,  tracts,  and  other  ephemeral  pro- 
ductions, but  build  up  a  substantial  Christian  literature  in 
every  language  in  which  we  found  Christian  churches.  We 
are  now  forming  a  plan  which  we  hope  will  enable  us  greatly 
to  extend  our  publishing  work,  and  enable  us  to  push  it  for- 
ward with  increasing  vigor;  but  in  the  absence  of  effectual  help 
from  the  Missionary  Society,  and  recognizing  the  fact  that 
very  little  aid  can  be  expected  from  the  Tract  Society,  we  are 
constrained  to  ask  if  the  gigantic  Book  Concerns  of  the  Church 
might  not  legitimately  extend  assistance  to  us  in  our  extrem- 
ity. This  is  in  their  line  of  work,  and  it  is  for  just  this  kind 
of  work  that  they  were  created,  and  to  this  they  chiefly  owe 
their  right  to  exist. 

I  shall  probably  be  expected  to  say  something  concerning 
the  character  of  our  Christians  in  India,  especially  those  who 
have  been  recently  brought  in  from  the  ranks  of  heathenism. 
As  might  have  been  expected,  serious  misgivings  have  been 
felt  by  many  of  our  friends  as  to  the  wisdom  of  admitting  so 
many  thousands  of  untaught  converts  to  membership  in  our 
churches,  and  both  in  India  and  America  we  have  been  com- 
pelled to  hear  the  epithet  "baptized  heathen"  applied  to  men 
who  are  our  brethren  beloved.  We  do  not  pretend  to  say  that 
all  our  converts  are  model  Christians,  but  we  do  affirm  that 
they  are  Christian  converts.  Their  future  will  depend  very 
largely  upon  our  fidelity  in  teaching  them,  and  for  this  reason 
we  have  cried  out  without  ceasing  for  help  to  enable  us  to  in- 
struct more  perfectly  those  whom  we  have  baptized  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  The  vast  majority  of  them  more 
than  come  up  to  the  simple  standard  of  religious  conduct 
which  James,  while  president  of  the  council  at  Jerusalem,  laid 
down  for  the  Gentile  converts ;  and  whenever  we  succeed  in 


THE  LATEST  REPORT.  549 

bringing  them  into  genuine  revival  meetings  they  enter  readily 
into  the  spirit  of  the  hour,  and  large  numbers  of  them  are 
baptized  with  the  Spirit  and  become  spiritually  minded 
Christians. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  this  work  is  something  new 
in  the  history  of  our  church,  and  before  condemning  our 
methods  our  critics  should  ask  themselves  how  they  would 
deal  with  thronging  thousands  of  heathen  inquirers.  So  long 
as  our  converts  are  few  in  number  we  can  adopt  any  one  of  a 
dozen  methods;  but  the  case  is  wholly  changed  when  the  peo- 
ple begin  to  move  in  masses.  If  the  teeming  millions  of  earth 
are  all  to  become  Christians,  we  must  enlarge  our  views,  dis- 
miss our  fears,  and  prejudices  as  well,  and  bid  all  the  mill- 
ions come  at  once  to  Christ,  and  to  our  own  hearts  as  well. 
We  believe  we  are  following  closely  the  precedents  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  as  we  expect  other  thousands  to  come  we  wish 
to  be  ready  to  receive  them  all.  In  due  time  all  missions  in 
heathen  lands  will  be  brought  face  to  face  with  this  problem, 
and  then,  beyond  a  doubt,  the  discussion  will  assume  a  new 
phase.  This  question  with  us  is  not,  What  is  the  best  course 
to  pursue  with  a  heathen  inquirer?  but  rather  this:  What  is 
the  best  course  to  pursue  when  twenty  thousand  inquirers  be- 
set our  doors  at  once  ?  This  is  a  new  question,  and  should  be 
discussed  as  such.  We  have  met  it  boldly,  and  have  grappled 
with  its  tremendous  issues  as  best  we  could.  We  do  not  prer 
tend  to  have  escaped  mistakes ;  but  after  making  due  allowance 
for  blunders  in  policy  and  imperfection  in  results,  we  nrmty 
believe  that  we  are  following  as  God  leads,  and  we  are  assured 
that  out  of  the  humble  converts  who  are  flocking  to  our  altars 
God  will  raise  up  a  church  which  will  be  a  benediction  to  the 
empire  long  after  the  men  of  to-day  shall  have  been  forgotten. 
Our  church  in  India  has  all  the  elements  of  a  living,  working, 
growing,  and  aggressive  organization.  Our  preachers  are  full 
of  zeal,  and  have  the  instinct  of  victory  rooted  in  their  hearts. 
They  expect  to  win.  They  believe  that  God  has  given  them  a 
goodly  heritage,  and  are  persuaded  that  the  church  to  which 


550  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

they  belong  has  a  great  and  glorious  work  to  perform  in  the 
great  empire  of  India. 

Our  delegates  from  India  will  present  memorials  to  this 
body  in  reference  to  various  interests,  one  or  two  of  which 
I  may  be  permitted  to  mention. 

Our  Central  Conference  has  served  its  purpose  well,  and  is 
invaluable  to  our  work;  but  a  few  amendments  to  its  consti- 
tution are  needed,  and  perhaps  an  enlargement  of  its  func- 
tions might  be  made  with  great  advantage  to  our  general 
interests. 

Our  Annual  Conferences  are  too  large  in  territorial  extent 
for  the  practical  work  of  such  bodies,  and  we  very  greatly  de- 
sire an  increase  of  their  number.  It  is  quite  a  common  thing 
for  our  brethren  to  have  to  travel  two  or  three  thousand 
miles  in  going  to  and  returning  from  their  Conference  ses- 
sions, and  this  in  the  case  of  native  brethren  becomes  simply 
prohibitive.  We  therefore  venture  to  ask  for  at  least  five 
Annual  Conferences  in  India  proper,  with  an  enabling  act  pro- 
viding for  a  sixth  in  Malaysia  as  soon  as  practicable. 

I  can  not  close  this  brief  and  very  imperfect  report  with- 
out urging  upon  you  the  necessity  of  preparing  to  sustain 
your  work  in  southern  Asia  upon  an  immensely  larger  scale 
than  that  with  which  you  have  been  familiar.  Our  day  of 
small  things  has  passed  away  forever.  Among  the  highest 
classes  and  castes  our  success  is  steadily  increasing,  while 
among  the  lower,  including  especially  the  lowest,  God  has  set 
before  us  an  open  door  of  opportunity  such  as  has  seldom  been 
set  before  any  church  or  people.  In  our  great  caste-ridden 
empire  between  40,000,000  and  50,000,000  people  belong  to 
what  are  called  the  "depressed  classes;"  that  is,  persons  be- 
low the  line  of  social  respectability.  With  few  exceptions 
these  people  are  excluded  from  the  public  schools,  and  hence 
have  lived  in  dense  ignorance,  and  have  seldom  manifested 
any  desire  to  better  their  condition.  Of  late  years,  however, 
a  marked  change  has  been  noticed  among  them.  As  before 
the  war  a  vague  and  universal  impression  took  possession  of 


THE  LATEST  REPORT.  551 

the  slaves  in  the  South  that  they  were  soon  to  be  free,  so 
among  these  multitudes  of  poor  Indian  peasants  the  whisper 
has  been  carried,  no  one  knows  how,  that  Christianity  is  to 
bring  them  light  and  freedom.  In  places  two  thousand  miles 
apart  these  poor  people  are  found  stirred  by  the  same  new 
hope,  and  seeking  help  from  the  same  source,  the  Christian 
missionary.  In  this  country  three  million  slaves  felt  the 
strange  pulsation,  but  iu  India  more  than  forty  millions  are 
stirred  by  it.  We  would  be  fools  and  blind  indeed  if  we 
could  look  upon  such  a  spectacle  unmoved,  or  if  we  failed  to 
recognize  the  fact  that  God  is  calling  us  to  such  an  oppor- 
tunity as  has  seldom  been  witnessed  in  Christian  history. 
We  dare  not  shut  our  eyes,  we  dare  not  stop  our  ears;  and 
yet  we  can  not  gaze  upon  such  a  spectacle,  or  listen  to  the 
calls  of  such  a  people,  without  committing  both  ourselves  and 
you  to  responsibilities  which  no  one  among  us  can  fully 
measure. 

We  have  been  reminded,  I  know,  that  all  work  of  this 
kind  is  uncertain,  and  that  the  extraordinary  movement  of 
to-day  may  be  the  failure  of  to-morrow.  We  are  told  that 
the  tide  may  turn,  or  at  Jeast  cease  to  rise,  and  that  we  ought 
not  to  reckon  our  success  as  assured  until  the  work  has  stood 
the  test  of  years.  It  is  always  well  to  be  prudent;  but  it  is 
not  prudent  to  try  to  evade  the  inevitable,  nor  is  it  wise  to 
be  indifferent  to  the  march  of  the  stupendous  events  of  this 
era  of  eras  in  the  world's  history.  We  do  not  know  what 
will  happen  on  the  morrow,  or  during  the  next  year,  but  we 
do  know  that  the  sun  never  sets  in  the  morning,  A  glorious 
morning  has  opened  its  portals  on  India,  and  the  golden 
beams  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  are  lighting  up  regions 
over  which  darkness  had  reigned  for  more  than  thirty  weary 
centuries.  We  hail  the  light  without  misgiving.  We  greet 
our  new,  bright  morning  with  hearts  swelling  with  gratitude 
to  God  and  confidence  in  his  promises.  We  expect  our  share 
of  trouble  and  trial,  but  we  seem  to  hear,  as  if  ever  whispered 
from  the  skies  above  us,  "Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go  down." 


552  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

The  greatest  victories  of  all  the  Christian  ages  are  at  hand. 
Dear  fathers  and  brethren,  will  you  suffer  one  who  speaks  for 
your  exiled  sons  and  daughters  in  the  far-off  East,  to  entreat 
you  not  to  think  lightly  of  this  day  of  missionary  visitation  ? 
You  have  a  golden  opportunity,  but  with  it  comes  a  solemn 
responsibility.  Expect  victory;  plan  for  it,  legislate  for  it, 
and  widen  your  vision  in  anticipation  of  it.  If  you  are  faith- 
ful to  your  trust,  our  thousands  of  to-day  will  become  our 
hundreds  of  thousands  in  the  early  future.  In  November  of 
1890  I  was  permitted  to  give  a  brief  address  at  a  great  meeting 
in  Boston,  in  the  course  of  which  I  ventured  to  say  that  I 
hoped  to  live  till  I  should  lead  an  assault  upon  the  gates  of 
hell  with  a  hundred  thousand  Indian  Methodists  at  my  back. 
The  remark  was  applauded  and  widely  quoted ;  but  although 
made  only  a  year  and  a  half  ago,  I  have  long  since  become 
ashamed  of  it.  If  I  were  to  make  that  address  over  again, 
I  should  deliberately  say  a  million  instead  of  a  hundred  thou- 
sand. How  long  it  takes  us  to  comprehend  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  in  earnest  in  his  efforts  to  save  our  race!  The  battle  is 
joined,  the  struggle  has  commenced,  the  crisis  is  at  hand. 
Your  sons  and  your  daughters  in  the  front  are  in  the  thick  of 
the  fight,  and  now  you  must  stand  by  this  cause,  as  you  stand 
by  your  faith  in  Christ  and  your  hope  of  heaven. 


Cl>apber   XLII. 
PENDING  QUESTIONS. 

MISSIONAKIES,  like  other  practical  persons,  find  them- 
selves confronted  from  time  to  time  by  new  questions 
of  vital  interest  to  the  work  in  which  they  are  engaged. 
While  in  its  most  essential  features  their  work  is  practically 
the  same  in  every  age,  yet  some  of  its  phases  are  liable  to 
change  with  changes  in  the  circumstances  in  which  the 
workers  may  be  placed.  For  instance,  the  recent  movement 
among  the  lower  castes  in  both  North  and  South  India  has 
brought  to  the  front  a  very  practical  question  in  relation  to 
the  baptism  of  converts.  In  earlier  times  the  almost  uni- 
versal rule  among  nearly  all  missionaries  in  India  was  to 
keep  inquirers  on  trial  for  a  considerable  period,  somewhat 
after  the  course  pursued  by  the  early  Christians  with  their 
catechumens.  This  plan  involved  not  only  a  more  or  less 
satisfactory  test  applied  in  the  case  of  each  convert,  but  also 
an  obligation  to  instruct  the  inquirers  until  they  had  what 
was  considered  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  Christian  doer 
trine.  As  might  have  been  expected,  this  course  of  prelimi- 
nary training,  especially  when  the  inquirers  came  in  large 
numbers,  was  apt  to  assume  a  somewhat  perfunctory  char- 
acter, particularly  in  the  case  of  converts  who  are  prepared 
for  baptism  by  ordinary  native  preachers.  It  would  happen, 
as  might  have  been  expected,  that  certain^  parts  of  the  cate- 
chism, with  the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  a  few  other 
formulae,  would  be  memorized,  without  however,  securing  any 
satisfactory  evidence  that  the  applicant  for  baptism  had  ac- 
cepted the  true  idea  of  Christian  life,  or  entered  upon  a  gen- 
uine Christian  experience. 

553 


554  INDIA  AND  MALA  YSIA. 

A  plan  like  the  above  may  be  pursued  easily  enough  so 
long  as  the  applicants  for  baptism  are  few  in  number;  but  in 
a  country  like  India,  where  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  a  sincere  inquirer  be  rescued  from  the  entanglements  of 
the  caste  system  as  soon  as  possible,  and  where  all  manner  of 
complications  are  sure  to  arise  in  a  family  in  which  all  are 
not  united  in  a  desire  to  become  Christians,  it  becomes  prac- 
tically impossible  to  postpone  baptism  for  a  number  of 
months,  while  the  converts  are  being  prepared  by  a  system 
of  catechetical  instruction  for  a  formal  examination.  In 
my  own  experience  I  encountered  this  difficulty  long  years 
ago,  and  on  the  very  first  tour  in  which  I  found  any  consid- 
erable number  of  inquirers,  it  became  clear  to  my  mind  that 
it  would  be  impossible  to  pursue  the  old  method  as  a  perma- 
nent policy.  For  instance,  the  husband  wishes  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian, while  the  wife  is  somewhat  fiercely  opposed  to  such  a 
step.  While  we  are  preparing  the  husband  for  baptism,  in 
many  cases  the  wife  will  leave  him.  taking  the  children  with 
her,  and  thus  permanently  breaking  up  the  family;  or  the 
neighbors  will  intervene,  and  by  the  use  of  many  mischievous 
arts,  well  understood  in  heathen  villages,  will  so  entangle  the 
convert  as  to  make  it  practically  impossible  for  him  to  main- 
tain his  purpose;  or  the  number  of  applicants  may  become 
so  large  that  it  is  impossible,  with  the  small  number  of 
workers  available,  to  pursue  the  old-time  course.  The  prac- 
tical question  then  presented  to  us  is  this :  Shall  we  leave 
these  persons,  as  nominal  professors  of  the  Hindu  faith,  to 
drift  along  as  best  they  can  until  a  period  in  the  future  when 
teachers  can  be  placed  over  them,  or  shall  we  receive  them 
at  once  on  their  profession  of  simple  faith  in  Christ  as  their 
Saviour,  and  give, them  the  best  instruction  we  can?  In  our 
mission,  we  have  been  led  to  pursue  the  latter  course.  We 
did  not  come  to  this  decision  hastily,  but  on  the  other  hand 
reluctantly  and  very  slowly;  and  yet  the  opinion  is  now 
almost  if  not  quite  unanimous,  that  what  seems  to  have  been 
the  Scriptural  course  is  the  right  and  only  course  to  pursue 


PENDING  QUESTIONS.  555 

when  multitudes  of  the  people  begin  to  throng  around  us, 
and  ask  us  to  show  them  how  to  become  Christians  and  live 
the  Christian  life. 

Just  at  present  an  earnest  and  somewhat  warm  contro- 
versy is  in  progress  in  India  over  this  question.  In  popular 
phrase  it  is  sometimes  called  the  question  of  "  quick  baptisms." 
Many  of  the  best  missionaries  in  the  empire  maintain  that  it  is 
wrong  to  baptize  any  convert  until  he  is  fairly  well  instructed 
in  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  Christianity,  while  others,  again, 
maintain  that  we  should  summon  all  the  people  to  forsake 
their  idols  and  their  sins,  turn  to  the  living  God  as  their 
Saviour,  and,  as  soon  as  they  are  prepared  to  take  the  latter 
step,  to  be  baptized  in  his  name.  On  the  one  side  it  is 
maintained  that  we  should  instruct  the  people  prior  to  bap- 
tism ;  on  the  other  it  is  affirmed  that  we  should  bring  the 
people  to  the  teacher  as  the  very  first  step,  that  they  may  be 
taught  in  the  school  of  Christ,  and  that  baptism  should 
initiate  them  into  this  school,  rather  than  graduate  them 
from  it. 

In  our  own  mission,  of  late  years,  our  practice  has  become 
settled  in  favor  of  baptizing  them  at  the  outset,  not  on  evi- 
dence of  what  is  popularly  called  conversion,  but  at  the 
point  where  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  converts  ac- 
cept Christ  as  their  Saviour.  We  baptize  them  "  unto  "  the 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  not  because  we  have  reason 
to  believe  that  they  have  received  the  Spirit's  baptism.  Space 
will  not  permit  a  full  discussion  of  this  question.  The  prec- 
edents of  the  New  Testament  are  not  uniform,  and  hence  it 
can  hardly  be  assumed  that  any  uniform  rule  can  be  applied 
to  all  cases  which  may  be  presented  to  the  missionary.  Never- 
theless, from  the  day  of  Pentecost  down,  it  would  seem  that 
every  convert  was  baptized  as  soon  as  he  believed,  and  cer- 
tainly, in  Peter's  great  sermon,  the  promise  was  given  that 
they  should  receive  the  Holy  Spirit  if  they  would  believe 
and  be  baptized.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  progress  of 
our  work  we  encounter  a  state  of  things  which  seems  very 


556  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

much  like  that  of  the  early  Christians.  Now  and  then  we 
meet  with  a  case  where  the  convert  has  clearly  received  the 
Spirit's  anointing  before  he  is  baptized  with  water ;  but  more 
frequently  the  outward  baptism  occurs  first,  and  nearly  all  our 
revival  meetings  are  held  among  those  who  have  been  bap- 
tized with  water,  and  are  now  seeking  the  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  In  some  of  our  large  camp-meetings  I  have 
known  from  one  to  two  hundred  persons  to  receive  this  holy 
anointing  in  the  course  of  a  single  day,  all  of  whom  had 
first  been  baptized  with  water,  some  of  them  perhaps  many 
months  before.  A  similar  meeting  held  in  England  or  America 
would  be  called  a  revival,  and  of  its  subjects  it  would  be  said 
that  they  had  been  "  converted,"  or  experienced  a  "  change 
of  heart."  The  actual  work  wrought  in  their  hearts  would 
be  the  same  in  both  cases. 

If,  now,  the  reader  in  America,  naturally  attached  to  the 
usage  with  which  he  bas  been  familiar  from  his  childhood, 
comes  forward  to  object  to  our  course,  and  to  insist  that  we 
should  wait  until  this  change  is  effected  before  baptizing 
with  water,  we  reply  that  in  most  cases  we  would  have  to 
wait  for  a  long  time,  and  often  see  the  poor  creature  die 
without  the  change.  As  a  simple  matter  of  fact,  we  can  not 
bring  any  considerable  number  of  people  so  directly  within 
the  range  of  gospel  influences  as  to  secure  their  spiritual 
conversion  before  they  are  separated  from  the  heathen  en- 
vironment in  which  they  have  been  brought  up.  At  a  most 
interesting  and  successful  meeting  held  in  the  city  of  Chan- 
dausi  a  few  years  ago,  I  witnessed  a  very  extraordinary 
movement  among  our  baptized  Christians.  Two  thousand 
or  more  of  them  were  present.  Meetings  had  been  held 
nearly  all  day.  Large  numbers  had  come  forward  for  prayer 
in  response  to  invitations  given  at  the  meetings.  As  many 
as  a  hundred  and  fifty  had  presented  themselves  in  a  single 
meeting  as  earnest  seekers,  and  at  a  late  hour  at  night,  when 
we  were  in  the  midst  of  a  rejoicing  assembly,  where  scores 
upon  scores  were  bearing  witness  to  the  new  experience 


PENDING  QUESTIONS.  557 

which  they  had  found,  Dr.  Parker  said  to  me,  as  he  looked 
around  upon  the  scene :  "  If  we  had  waited  until  these  peo- 
ple reached  this  point  in  their  experience  before  baptizing 
them,  not  one  of  all  in  this  congregation  would  have  been 
here  to-night."  I  saw  at  a  glance  the  force  of  his  remark. 
It  was  morally  certain  that  had  we  pursued  the  old  policy, 
these  poor  persons,  instead  of  rejoicing  with  us  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  new-found  spiritual  life,  would  have  been  in 
their  distant  villages  serving  idols  and  groping  in  hopeless 
darkness. 

The  controversy  now  going  on  in  India  over  this  ques- 
tion will  be  solved  by  events.  For  the  present  it  is  perhaps 
the  uppermost  question  in  missionary  circles.  It  is  discussed 
everywhere,  but,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  very  best  spirit, 
and  by  men  who  are  anxious  to  know  the  truth.  It  is 
possible  that,  with  the  progress  of  events  and  the  multipli- 
cation of  preachers  and  teachers,  we  may  find  it  advisable  to 
modify  our  present  course  in  some  measure;  but  we  can  not 
improve  upon  Scriptural  methods,  and  it  is  not  probable  that 
we  will  ever  again  fall  back  upon  the  very  unsatisfactory 
plan,  pursued  in  earlier  days,  of  testing  converts  by  their 
knowledge  of  Catechism  and  Creed. 

Closely  connected  with  this  question  of  baptism  is  an- 
other, which  has  not  become  a  subject  of  controversy,  but 
which  deserves  more  attention  than  it  has  thus  far  received. 
I  refer  to  the  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  As 
Methodists,  we  have  been  seriously  remiss  in  our  observ- 
ance of  this  solemn  duty.  Methodism  is  to  some  extent  a 
reaction  against  extreme  worldliness  on  the  one  hand,  and 
ritualism  on  the  other,  and,  as  happens  with  every  reaction, 
the  pendulum  has  swung  too  far  in  the  opposite  direction. 
While  discarding  the  idea  that  either  of  the  New  Testament 
sacraments  possesses  in  itself  any  saving  efficacy,  we  have 
allowed  ourselves,  more  or  less  unconsciously,  to  assume  that 
these  ordinances  can  be  dispensed  with  without  serious  loss 
to  the  believer.  In  earlier  times  many  of  our  people  in 


558  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

remote  country  districts  in  America  did  not  have  an  opportu- 
nity of  receiving  the  Lord's  Supper  more  than  once  a  year, 
and,  in  some  cases,  perhaps  not  for  several  years  together. 
As  these  Christians  seemed  to  get  along  very  well,  and  never 
complained  of  the  neglect  of  their  pastors  in  this  respect, 
the  impression  has  perhaps  grown  upon  us  that  this  sacra- 
ment, being  but  an  outward  ceremony,  has  little  vital  impor- 
tance to  the  individual  or  the  church.  Such  a  notion  in- 
volves a  very  serious  mistake.  I  must  confess  that  I  myself 
never  understood  the  full  value  of  either  baptism  or  the 
Lord's  Supper  until  recent  years,  when  my  experience  with 
new  converts  in  India  opened  my  eyes  to  the  unspeakable 
power  of  both  of  these  sacraments,  both  to  present  clearly, 
and  keep  alive,  vital  Christian  truth  among  believers.  Bap- 
tism, if  properly  administered,  is  in  itself  a  presentation  of 
the  gospel.  An  unbeliever  who  sees  a  new  convert  baptized 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  is  told  that  in  like  manner 
as  the  missionary  before  him  baptizes  with  water,  so  the  un- 
seen Saviour  of  men,  standing  close  by  his  side,  baptizes  with 
the  Holy  Spirit,  has  an  object-lesson  presented  to  him  which 
will  teach  him  mere  in  a  few  minutes  than  he  could  learn 
from  fifty  ordinary  sermons.  In  like  manner,  the  Lord's 
Supper  contains  in  itself  a  whole  system  of  doctrine,  and  a 
complete  proclamation  of  Christian  truth.  The  more  it  is 
studied  in  the  light  of  practical  experience,  the  more  wonder- 
fully is  it  found  adapted  to  the  wants  of  simple  Christian 
converts,  such  as  we  have  in  India.  It  contains,  for  instance, 
a  fourfold  idea.  It  is  a  testimony,  a  proclamation  of  a 
Saviour  crucified,  showing  forth  the  Saviour's  death  until 
his  coming  again.  It  is  a  covenant,  in  which  the  believer 
again  and  again  accepts  the  gracious  terms  which  God  makes 
with  him,  in  an  everlasting  bond  that  never  can  be  broken. 
It  is  a  memorial  service,  keeping  in  tender  recollection  the 
death  of  Christ  for  the  believer;  and  it  is  a  feast,  in  which 
the  recipient  of  the  outward  token  learns  to  receive  the  liv- 


PENDING  QUESTIONS.  559 

ing  bread  that  cometh  down  from  heaven,  to  give  life  unto 
the  world.  The  more  this  wonderful  institution  is  studied, 
the  more  clearly  will  its  value  be  perceived  to  all  believers, 
but  especially  to  such  babes  in  Christ  as  we  have  in  India. 

But  just  here  a  practical  difficulty  meets  us.  If  we  ad- 
here rigidly  to  the  rules  and  regulations  of  our  church 
system,  it  is  found  almost  impossible  to  arrange  for  the 
proper  administration  of  this  sacrament  among  our  scattered 
converts.  Up  to  recent  date  large  numbers  of  them  had 
never  once  enjoyed  an  opportunity  of  partaking  of  this 
solemn  memorial  service  and  covenant  feast.  The  recent 
General  Conference  at  Omaha  received  in  the  most  favorable 
light,  representations  made  on  this  subject,  and  gave  some 
relief  by  changing  the  rule  of  our  Discipline  so  as  to  enable 
us  to  ordain  a  larger  number  of  native  preachers,  and  thus 
provided  for  the  more  frequent  administration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  according  to  the  authorized  rules  of  the  church. 
For  this  measure  of  relief  we  are  very  thankful;  but  I  fear 
means  adequate  to  meet  the  case  can  only  be  decided  upon 
by  experience.  I  trust,  however,  that  in  our  missions  and 
churches  in  India,  as  well  as  in  the  entire  mission-field  of 
the  world,  the  absolute  importance  of  making  all  converts 
familiar  with  this  sacred  ordinance  may  never  be  over- 
looked. 

Closely  connected  again  with  this  question  is  that  of  a 
native  ministry.  It  is  extremely  difficult  for  us  to  free  our- 
selves from  the  associations  of  a  life-time,  and  hence  men 
and  women  who  have  gone  from  Christian  lands  to  a  country 
like  India,  having  been  familiar  from  childhood  with  an  order 
of  men  who  belonged  to  what  is  called  the  Christian  minis- 
try— men  of  culture,  and  to  some  extent  leaders  in  society — 
shrink  from  the  idea  of  placing  uncultured  and  almost  illit- 
erate converts  in  the  responsible  place  of  pastors  of  Christian 
churches.  And  yet  when  the  people  of  India  begin,  as  they 
are  now  doing,  to  turn  to  God  in  large  numbers,  when  bands 


560  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

of  Christian  believers  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  country, 
and  when  it  becomes  a  physical  impossibility  for  the  educated 
and  ordained  ministers  to  reach  one-half,  or  even  one-tenth  of 
these  converts,  every  wise  man  ought  to  see  that  our  old 
ideas  of  the  ministry  are  destined  to  be  somewhat  rudely 
shaken,  if  not  entirely  overthrown,  by  the  progress  of  events 
in  the  very  early  future.  These  scattered  bands  of  Christian 
believers  should  be  organized  as  so  many  churches,  and  placed 
under  proper  pastoral  oversight,  and  all  of  them  should  re- 
ceive the  Lord's  Supper  as  regularly  as  their  fellow-believers 
who  worship  God  in  marble  temples  in  the  great  Christian 
cities  of  Europe  and  America.  If  it  be  said  that  no  man 
should  be  ordained  to  perform  so  solemn  and  sacred  a  service 
until  he  has  a  respectable  education,  the  obvious  reply  is  that 
no  man  has  a  right  to  deprive  these  poor  creatures  of  the 
common  Christian  privileges  which  God  has  freely  bestowed 
upon  all  believers.  It  is  not  a  mere  question  of  culture,  but 
rather  of  Christian  privilege.  The  best  men  who  can  be 
found  for  the  care  of  these  congregations  are  manifestly 
those  whom  God  has  appointed  for  this  duty,  and  we  have 
no  right  to  interpose  objections  about  ministerial  qualifi- 
cations, unless  we  can  at  the  same  time  devise  a  method  by 
which  all  these  believers  may  be  secured  in  the  enjoyment 
of  all  their  rights  as  Christians. 

The  question  of  church  organization  in  mission-fields  is 
also  claiming  an  amount  of  attention,  which  it  certainly  well 
deserves.  In  Japan,  more  than  in  any  other  field,  this  ques- 
tion has  come  to  the  front  in  a  practical  shape  in  recent  years, 
owing  probably  to  the  fact  that  Japan  occupies  a  more  in- 
dependent position  than  any  other  non-Christian  nation  in 
the  world.  We  may  accept  it  as  certain,  beyond  any  shadow 
of  doubt,  that  in  every  nation  under  the  sun  our  Christian 
converts  will  want  to  assume  the  management  of  their  own 
affairs  as  soon  as  they  are  permitted  to  do  so.  It  is  utterly 
useless  to  find  fault  with  this  disposition.  It  is  inseparable 


PENDING  QUESTIONS.  561 

from  our  character  as  human  beings,  and  we  might  as  well 
quarrel  with  the  fact  that  our  converts  will  feel  the  natural 
sensations  of  hunger  and  thirst,  as  with  their  wish  to  manage 
affairs  which  they  instinctively  perceive  to  belong  to  them- 
selves. If  we  are  unwise,  it  will  be  very  easy  to  quarrel 
with  the  inevitable,  and  in  every  such  contest  those  who  take 
up  the  quarrel  are  sure  to  be  worsted.  We  ought  not  to  al- 
low ourselves  to  feel  either  surprise  or  displeasure  when  we 
discover  that  our  brethren  in  Christ  in  other  countries  are 
led,  as  if  naturally,  to  maintain  a  position  which  we  never 
think  of  abandoning  in  our  own  case  for  a  single  moment; 
nor  is  it  desirable  that  these  converts  should  act  otherwise. 
If  we  can  not  build  up  churches  in  foreign  lauds  with  in- 
digenous resources  and  capable  of  self-government,  we  might 
as  well  abandon  all  our  attempts  to  overthrow  the  false  re- 
ligions of  the  nations  and  to  make  this  earth  a  Christian 
world.  Accepting,  then,  a  fact  so  obvious  as  this,  it  requires 
the  highest  wisdom  on  the  part  of  all  missionary  managers 
to  co-operate  with  the  natural  tendency  of  events  on  the 
mission-field,  and  to  develop  an  indigenous  government  of 
every  Christian  church  as  rapidly  as  possible.  For  a  time — 
and  it  possibly  may  be  a  long  time — the  church  in  a  mission- 
field  must  be  more  or  less  closely  connected  with  the  body  , 
which  has,  under  God,  brought  it  into  existence;  but  in  order 
to  secure  its  best  and  highest  possibilities  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible, its  local  administration  should  be  made  autonomous  at 
the  earliest  possible  date,  and  this  should  be  kept  constantly 
in  view.  It  would  be  rash  and  unwise  in  the  extreme  to  cast 
off  a  foreign  church  at  the  very  day  of  its  organization,  and 
no  great  change  of  this  kind  should  ever  be  precipitated  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  imperil  any  important  interest ;  but  on 
the  other  hand  it  is  as  short-sighted  as  it  is  vain  for  any  church 
to  assume  that  it  can  control  the  interests  of  another  church 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  globe,  make  laws  for  it,  sanction 

or  veto  its  measures,  and  administer  its  interests  in  all  matters 

36 


562  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA. 

great  and  small.  In  every  mission-field  it  ought  to  be  ac- 
cepted as  a  settled  maxim  that  the  foreign  element,  like  the 
house  of  Saul,  will  wax  weaker  and  weaker,  while  the  in- 
digenous element,  like  the  house  of  David,  is  to  wax  stronger 
and  stronger,  until  at  length  the  consummation  to  be  desired 
by  both  parties  is  reached,  and  full  autonomy  given  in  every 
separate  nation  to  the  church  or  churches  of  the  nation. 


(Ettb. 


INDEX. 


AJMERE,  418. 

American  Methodist  missions,  220. 

Andrews,  Bishop  E.  G.,  300. 

Anstey,  Miss  Louisa,  457. 

Army,  Standing,  58. 

Arnold,  Sir  Edwin,  97. 

BADLEY,  D.  D.,  Rev.  B.  H.,  336. 

Baptism  of  converts,  553-557. 

Baume,  Rev.  James,  227. 

Behar,  Province  of,  437. 

Bengal,  434. 

Bombay,  427,  429-433. 

Bose,    B.    M.    A.,  Miss  Chandra 

Mukhi,  376. 

Bowen,  Rev.  George,  429. 
Brahmans,  Origin  of,  85. 
Brahmans  of  the  future,  408. 
Buddhism,  a  Hindu  heresy,  87. 
Buddhism,  Modern,  108. 
Buddhism,  Monks  of,  103-105. 
Buddhism,   Rights    of    same     as 

Roman  Catholic,  106. 
Buddhism,  Sects  of,  106. 
Burma,  443. 

Burma,  Hopeful   outlook  in,  452. 
Burma,  People  of,  435. 
Burma,  Tribes  of,  446,  447. 
Butler,  D.  D.,  Rev.  W.,  223. 
Butler,  arrival  in  India,  224. 
Butler,  Perilous  escape  of,  224. 
Butler,  work  of  organization,  225- 

232. 
Butler,  Retirement  of,  278. 


CALCUTTA,  Methodist  missions  in, 

439. 

Calcutta,  Work  in,  307. 
Carey,  D.  D.,  Rev.  William,  206. 
Carey,  call  to  missionary  work,  209. 
Carey,  arrival  in  India,  210. 
Carey,  career  in  India,  211-215. 
Caste,  Origin  of,  85. 
Castes  and  out-castes,  398-403. 
Cawnpore,  Preaching  in,  292. 
Central  provinces,  453. 
Church  organization,  252,  560. 
Climate  of  India,  20. 
Code  of  laws,  Macaulay's,  49. 
Colleges  at  Lucknow,  336. 
Conferences,  Annual,  276,  297. 
Conferences,  Central,  540,  299. 
Conferences,  District,  291. 
Conferences,  Woman's,  540. 
Courts,  Indian,  50. 
Craven,  Rev.  Thomas,  343. 

DECCAN,  or  South  Country,  456. 

Demon  worship,  73. 

Denmark,  Enlightened  policy  of, 

115,  179,  213. 
Devotees,    animated    by     double 

error,  124. 
Devotees,  Blighting    influence  of, 

131. 

Devotees,  Home  land  of,  124. 
Devotees,  Punishment  of,  133. 
Devotees,  Varieties  of,  125. 
Discontent,  Causes  of,  66-68. 
563 


564 


INDEX. 


District  subdivisions,  48. 
Doab,  Mission-work  in,  418. 
Doab,  region  called,  417. 
Durbin,  D.  D.,   Rev.  J.  P.,  origi- 
nated India  Mission,  222. 

EDUCATED  CLASSES,  66. 
Elevating  the  poor,  269-274. 
Empire  of  India,  Future,  55. 
English  can  not  leave    India,  57. 
English  work,  Meaning  of,  316. 
Eurasians,  Character  of,  317. 

FATALISM,  76. 
Feudatory  States,  51. 
Forests  of  India,  25. 
Free-trade  in  India,  63. 

GARHWAL,  280,  283. 

Gautama,  98. 

Gautama,  Doctrine  of,  102. 

Gautama,  Preaching  of,  103. 

Genesis,  First  three   chapters  of, 

78. 

Gonda,  283. 
Goucher,  D.  D.,  Rev.  J.  F.,  Schools 

founded  by,  334. 
Government  of  India,  45. 
Gujarat,  People  of,  428. 

HAQQ,  REV.  ZAHUR  UL,  266. 

Himalayas,  280. 

Hinduism,  Comprehensiveness  of, 
84. 

Hinduism,  Two  radical  tests  of,  86. 

Hinduism,  tolerant  and  intoler- 
ant, 87. 

Home  comforts,  465. 

Hunter,  Dr.  W.  H.  H.,  163,  164. 

Hurst,  Bishop  J.  F.,  299,  521. 

Hyderabad,  456. 

Hypnotics,  buried,  135. 

IMMIGRATION  into  India,  27. 
Incarnations.  Hindu  doctrine  of.  91 . 


India  not   a    conquered   country, 

42. 

Indian  Christians,  184. 
Indian  lady  students,  385. 
Indians,  Anglicizing  of,  323. 
Inquisition  at  Goa,  165. 

JAVA,  531. 

Jesuits,  Order  of,  191. 

Jesuits  under  Xavier,  162. 

KANARESE,  Language  of,  457. 
Khan,  Rev.  Hasan  Raza,  418. 
Knowles,  M.  A.,  Rev.  S.,  284. 
Kolar,  457. 
Kumaon,  Province  of,  281. 

LADY  DUFFERIN  FUND,  383. 
Lieutenant-Governors,  47. 
Lord's  Supper,  557. 
Loyalty  to  England,  64. 

MADRAS,  461. 

Malacca,  508. 

Malay  language,  497. 

Malay  Peninsula,  509. 

Malaysia,  Chinese  colonists  in, 
496. 

Malaysia,  European  movements 
in,  499. 

Malaysia,  Extent  of,  486. 

Malaysia,  import  of  name,  483. 

Malaysia,  People  of,  490-495. 

Marathi  language,  430. 

Medical  work  for  women,  380. 

Mission  boarding  schools,  372-379. 

Mission  schools,  243,  265,  329-340. 

Mohammedanism,  a  militant 
faith,  112. 

Mohammedanism  brought  to  In- 
dia by  the  sword,  112. 

Mohammedanism,  its  method  of 
conversion,  113. 

Mohammedanism,  Low  morality 
Of,  118. 


INDEX. 


565 


Mohammedanism,  mental  status 
of  Indian  people,  40. 

Mohammedanism,  missionaries  as 
reformers,  181. 

Mohammedanism,  moral  stand- 
ard of  Indian  people,  36. 

Mohammedanism,  Rigid  conserva- 
tism of,  121. 

Movement  among  low-caste  peo- 
ple, 403. 

Music,  Indian,  473. 

Music,  Mohammedan  hostility 
to,  476. 

Music,  Peculiarities  of,  476-478. 

Music,  specimen  tunes,  482. 

NATIVE  MINISTRY,  559. 
Nerbudda  Valley,  455. 
New  doors  opening,  413. 
Newman,  F.  W.,  143. 
North  India  Mission,  249. 

OLDHAM,  D.  D.,  Rev.  W.  F.,  522, 

526,  529,  535. 

Oriental  tastes  and   customs,  244. 
Orphanages,  268. 
Oudh,  New  openings  in,  416. 
Oudh,  Province  of,  415. 

PANJAB,  Province  of,  425. 

Panteenus,  Visit  of  to   India,  155 

Pantheism,  77. 

Parker,  D.  D.,  Rev.  E.  W.,  228, 
270. 

Parker,  Theodore,  142,  145. 

Penang,  507. 

Philippine  Islands,  502. 

Poverty  of  converts,  311,  314. 

Poverty  of   the  Indian  people,  34. 

Preaching,  Oriental  model  re- 
quired, 241. 

Press,  First  mission,  269. 

Protestant  societies  entering  In- 
dia, 180. 


Protestant  missions  in  India,  175. 
Protestant    missions,    Results    of, 
181,  189. 

RAILWAYS  in  India,  19. 

Rangoon,  298. 

Rangoon,  First  visit  to,  449. 

Religious  sects  in  India,  71. 

Rivers  in  India,  16. 

Rivers,  Traffic  on,  17. 

Roman  Catholic  Inquisition  es- 
tablished, 165. 

Roman  Catholic  Jesuits  under 
Xavier,  162. 

Roman  Catholic  missions  in  In- 
dia, 161. 

Roman  Catholic  religious  orders  in 
India,  161. 

Roman  Catholics,  Losses  of,  169. 

Roman  Catholics  not  making  prog- 
ress, 168. 

Roy,  Ram  Mohun,  142. 

SARASWATI,  DYANAND,  148. 

Schwartz,  Danish  missionary,  177. 

Scott,  D.  D.,  Rev.  T.  J.,  339,  473. 

Self-support,  305,  308. 

Sen,  Keshub  Chunder,  144,  147. 

Sickness  and  health  in  India,  463. 

Singapore,  506,  520,  534. 

Singapore,  Chinese  in,  529. 

Somaj,  Arya,  148. 

Somaj,  Brahmo,  141. 

Soott,  Mrs.  Emma  Moore,  479. 

Statistics  of  first  six  years,  275. 

Statistics,  latest  religions,  80. 

Style  of  living,  470. 

Sunday-schools,  341. 

Sunday-schools,  Great  expansion 
of,  352. 

Sunday-schools,  New  influence  to, 
343. 

Supreme  Deity,  Existence  of  ad- 
mitted, 74, 


566 


INDEX. 


Swain,  M.  D.,  Miss  Clara  A.,  290, 

381. 
Syrian  Christians  in  India,  154-158. 

TAMIL  PEOPLE,  459. 

Taxation,  62. 

Taylor,  Bishop  W.,  294-296. 

Telugu  people,  457. 

Theological  Seminary,  338. 

Thoburn,  Miss  Isabella,  290,  337, 
355. 

Thomas,  traditional  apostle  to  In- 
dia, 153. 

Tract  Society,  Hindu,  151. 

Transmigration,  90. 

Triad,  Hindu,  92. 

WAUGH,  D.  D.,  Rev.  J.  W.,  228, 
269. 


Williams,  Sir  Monier,  84,  99,  102, 
108. 

Wilson,  M.  D.,  Rev.  P.  T.,  286. 

Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  So- 
ciety, 290. 

XAVIER,  Francis,  birth  and  early 

life,  191. 

Xavier  founding  Jesuit  Order,  191. 
Xavier  mission  to  the  East,  192. 
Xavier,  career  in  Western  India, 

194. 

Xavier's  stay  at  Malacca,  198. 
Xavier  in  the  Spice  Islands,  199. 
Xavier  mission  to  Japan,  200. 
Xavier     projected      mission      to 

China,  202. 
Xavier's     death,  and     results    of 

labors,  202-205. 


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